UK Booksellers Report Surge in Bulk Orders Tied to AI Training

Mysterious buyers sweep secondhand book market

Secondhand booksellers across the UK and Ireland are fielding an unusual wave of bulk orders from unidentified buyers, with many in the industry suspecting AI companies are behind the purchases, according to a report first published by The Guardian.

The orders, which began arriving around May 2026, differ sharply from typical bulk purchases. Rather than focusing on specific themes or genres, buyers are requesting seemingly random combinations of titles—from Estonian translations of John le Carré novels to obscure 1980s maritime magazines.

Stuart Manley, co-owner of Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, told The Guardian his shop has sold "hundreds" of random books to three buyers over the past three months, totaling approximately £4,000. "Normally a book order is on a theme but this is all over the place," Manley said.

Pattern emerges across multiple countries

The phenomenon extends beyond the UK. Booksellers in the United States, Australia, and continental Europe have reported similar activity. Orders are arriving from buyers based in the US, Canada, and across Europe, often through online marketplaces including Biblio and Amazon-owned AbeBooks.

David Gower-Spence, owner of BookLovers of Bath, received orders for approximately 200 books between May and July. Jim Shaughnessy of MW Books in Claregalway, Ireland, described the orders as "sporadic, presumably machine-driven" with requests ranging from books on 18th-century African agricultural implements to biographies of 1950s racing drivers.

One UK bookseller, speaking anonymously to The Guardian, reported receiving orders for 6,000 books since January worth thousands of pounds. The source noted that buyers are paying premium prices without seeking bulk discounts—unusual behavior in the secondhand trade. Some orders from different buyer names are being delivered to the same addresses, including freight warehouses near Heathrow airport.

AI training connection gains evidence

The speculation about AI involvement gained credibility earlier this year when The Washington Post revealed that Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, had spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring books, removing their spines for scanning, and then recycling them.

In a statement to The Guardian, Anthropic confirmed that "sourcing books is a widely used approach for training large language models across the AI industry," though the company said it does not purchase rare or antiquarian books.

AI systems require vast amounts of data for training, and secondhand books—particularly those published before 2022—represent a source of text untainted by AI-generated content. Books not available in digital form online could provide fresh training material for companies developing new models.

Why it matters

The bulk acquisition of physical books for AI training represents a new front in tech companies' search for training data, with potential implications for the secondhand book trade and questions about intellectual property. While booksellers are profiting from the sales, the practice raises concerns about the wholesale destruction of physical books and whether authors and publishers should have a say when their works are used to train commercial AI systems. The scale of these purchases—thousands of books from individual sellers—suggests a coordinated, well-funded effort that could reshape how AI companies source training material.

Industry disruption concerns

Several booksellers expressed concern about the impact on their trade. "It's disrupting the secondhand bookselling business because this isn't typical for the trade," one anonymous seller told The Guardian.

The identity of many buyers remains opaque. One frequently cited name, Canada-based Zoom Books, describes itself as "North America's leading book recycling company." The company did not respond to The Guardian's request for comment.

Details of the bulk book orders and bookseller accounts were first reported by The Guardian.