A ‘bananas’ order for 5,000 obscure titles from a bookshop in Galway fuels suspicion
Summary
The Irish Times piece reports on a mass, seemingly anomalous order of 5,000 obscure books targeting independent booksellers in Europe, with concerns that such bulk orders may be tied to training AI models. The article ties these concerns to broader AI data sourcing debates, citing Anthropic’s Project Panama and a high-profile copyright settlement, and cites industry voices warning about potential copyright violations and the commodification of books for AI training. It also surveys responses from German and Irish booksellers, highlighting legal and ethical tensions surrounding data gathering for AI.