The Journal.

AI Companies Are Buying and Destroying Used Books

September 8, 2026·20 min·4-min readnarrativebusiness
Podzilla Summary (4 min)
TLDR
Used booksellers across the U.S. began receiving mysterious bulk orders from unknown buyers, often under names like Red Sparrow and Blue Finch. An investigation revealed these purchases were part of a covert AI training operation—most notably Anthropic’s Project Panama—where physical book

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Guest

M

Melissa Korn

narrative on The Journal.

Mentions

Books, people, and resources mentioned in this episode.

People

Melissa KornJessica Mendoza

Companies

Anthropic

Products & Tools

Project Panamabook guillotine

Topics

Artificial IntelligenceBusiness NewsInvestigative JournalismLong Form JournalismStartupsTech Industry

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