Fact Check: Anthropic Bought and 'Destructively Scanned' Millions of Books — What We Know and What’s Still Unverified

Claims circulated in mid-2026 that artificial intelligence companies were buying, scanning and destroying millions of physical books — including rare and obscure volumes. Court-ordered internal documents from Anthropic, made public during copyright litigation, confirm that Anthropic ran a program called Project Panama to acquire large quantities of books and to "destructively scan" them. However, the public record does not confirm whether other AI companies carried out similar large-scale destructive-scanning programs.

What the Unsealed Documents Show

Documents released under a judge's order in the context of a 2024 copyright lawsuit indicate that Anthropic purchased books in bulk, prioritized "less common" or high-quality titles, and planned to "destructively scan" them as part of Project Panama. An October 2024 memo (partially redacted) indicates the scale of purchases was in the millions (the redacted figure ends with "M"). Email exchanges with vendors such as Wonder Book show project leaders discussing targeting "less common books."

Project Panama
Owner: Tom Turvey
Last major update: Apr 13, 2024
What is Project Panama?
Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.

What Is Still Undetermined

While Anthropic's internal materials substantiate the company-level program described above, independent verification that multiple AI companies carried out comparable destructive-scanning projects is lacking. Some widely shared web pages and reports initially suggested a broader industry practice, but at least one source (ISBNdb) later said a cited page was only a market-interest test and removed it.

How Destructive Scanning Works

High-speed, bulk scanning of bound books commonly involves slicing or removing the spine so pages can be fed through automatic scanners. Reporting and procedural files in the unsealed materials describe such practices as part of their recommended workflows for rapid throughput.

Context: Lawsuits, Sources, And Reporting

The issue emerged publicly amid litigation brought by authors who alleged Anthropic trained models on copyrighted works without permission. Anthropic argued that its training uses constituted fair use. The judge in that litigation ordered certain internal documents unsealed, which is how Project Panama and related memos became publicly available in January 2026.

Initial amplification of the story on social platforms and by outlets such as 404 Media and Futurism included references to a now-removed ISBNdb page that implied large-scale sourcing services for AI buyers. ISBNdb later clarified that it never purchased or scanned books for AI training and said the page was a market test, not an active offering.

Bottom Line

Internal, court-revealed documents show Anthropic purchased books in bulk, prioritized "less common" titles, and planned to "destructively scan" them under Project Panama. These facts support the core of the viral claim about Anthropic. However, whether other AI companies undertook similar destructive-scanning campaigns has not been independently confirmed. We will update this article if Anthropic or other parties provide additional information.