It has emerged that Nippan Group, a major book wholesaler, may have sold large volumes of books to US AI company Anthropic, and that the Japan Book Publishers Association sent Nippan a written request to confirm the facts. Key issues include whether the books sold contained publications issued by member publishers and whether the sales were legally compliant.
It emerged on the 18th that the Japan Book Publishers Association had sent Nippan a written request for fact-checking, amid indications that Nippan Group Holdings, a major book wholesaler, may have sold large volumes of books to US AI developer Anthropic. Concern has emerged among relevant parties that the books sold may have been used to train Anthropic’s AI.
In its letter, the association asked Nippan to explain whether the books provided to Anthropic included publications issued by publishers belonging to the association, the details if they did, and the legal compliance of making bulk sales to an overseas company without the publishers’ consent.
US court documents contain multiple references to “Nippan Japan,” which is believed to refer to Nippan, and state that US authors who had brought a lawsuit alleging that books from piracy websites were used without permission to train AI had reached a settlement.
In response to inquiries from The Asahi Shimbun, Nippan said it would refrain from commenting on the details of individual transactions, while explaining: “There has been no instance, in this matter or otherwise, in which we sold materials after recognizing that they were intended for use in training by an AI company.”