Anthropic's "Project Panama" destroys millions of books for AI training
Anthropic reportedly bought millions of out-of-print books starting in 2024, scanned them for AI training data, and destroyed them—a practice it code-named "Project Panama". The company relied on US fair use law to justify the legally purchased destruction, though the practice raised concerns among authors, publishers and cultural heritage advocates in multiple countries.
What happened
Starting in 2024, Anthropic began purchasing out-of-print books by the millions through automated intermediaries, code-named 'Project Panama'. Books were mechanically scanned page-by-page and then destroyed, with the paper recycled. The company conducted this as clean training data for Claude, its AI model, to avoid contamination from AI-generated content that now saturates the internet.
Anthropic relied on the 'fair use' provision of US copyright law, which permits AI training on legally purchased copyrighted works provided the original is no longer accessible to the public. The operation was conducted secretly due to reputational and legal risks in other jurisdictions.
Reported impact
Authors, publishers and librarians across Europe and Australia expressed concern about the scale of book destruction for AI training. Cultural heritage advocates warned about the permanent loss of sometimes rare and ancient books solely for AI purposes.
Index analysis
The practice reflects the tech industry's massive demand for uncontaminated training data. Big Tech companies seek books published before 2022 in physical format to avoid AI-generated content that has polluted online sources with fabricated citations, invented information and plagiarized material.
Destruction of the books makes legal pursuit more difficult, as no evidence of the original work remains after scanning. The method is legal in the United States but presents judicial risk in other countries.
Governance controls
Anthropic justified the practice under US fair use law, which permits training on protected works if legally obtained, useful for learning, and no longer publicly accessible. The secrecy surrounding Project Panama indicated awareness of reputational and legal exposure.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.