Elon Musk Orders SpaceXAI to Scan Rare Books Without Destroying Them

Elon Musk posted on X that he has instructed the SpaceXAI team to digitise library holdings using non‑destructive scanning methods, such as overhead or V‑shaped scanners, rather than the rapid spine‑cutting technique that tears books apart. The directive follows investigative reports that AI firm Anthropic bought large numbers of rare and out‑of‑print volumes, sliced their spines, fed the pages to high‑speed industrial scanners to train its Claude model, and then destroyed the physical copies.

Musk said SpaceXAI will accept the slower, more costly process to protect historic works. While a U.S. court has ruled that destroying legally acquired books after scanning can be fair use, cultural organisations and netizens have criticized the practice. Musk’s stance has been praised as a step toward more ethical data‑acquisition in the AI industry.