{"slug": "secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-behind-strange-bulk", "title": "Secondhand booksellers in UK and Ireland suspect AI firms behind ‘strange’ bulk orders", "summary": "Secondhand booksellers in the UK and Ireland report a surge in bulk orders from mystery buyers, with speculation that AI companies are purchasing books for data acquisition. The Guardian's investigation follows reports that Anthropic spent millions on books to scan for 'data acquisition'.", "body_md": "# Secondhand booksellers in UK and Ireland suspect AI firms behind ‘strange’ bulk orders\n\nBy Dan Milmo Global technology editorSource:\n\n[The Guardian Technology](https://www.theguardian.com/us/technology)Development comes after [Anthropic](/glossary/anthropic) was found to have spent millions on books to scan for ‘data acquisition’\n\nSecondhand booksellers in the UK and Ireland are reporting a flurry of bulk orders from mystery buyers, amid speculation AI companies are acquiring the tomes for their data.\n\nBookshops contacted by the Guardian say they have been receiving orders from buyers in the US, Canada, continental Europe and the UK. The increase has been replicated around the world, with booksellers in the US, Australia and Europe also reporting unusual orders.\n\n[Continue reading...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/15/uk-ireland-booksellers-suspect-ai-companies-bulk-orders-data-acquisition)\n\nGet AI news in your inbox\n\nDaily digest of what matters in AI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-behind-strange-bulk", "canonical_source": "https://www.machinebrief.com/news/secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-be-fe8m", "published_at": "2026-08-15 08:00:51+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-16 00:11:02.663812+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["The Guardian", "Anthropic"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-behind-strange-bulk", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-behind-strange-bulk.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-behind-strange-bulk.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/secondhand-booksellers-in-uk-and-ireland-suspect-ai-firms-behind-strange-bulk.jsonld"}}