For those just learning about LibGen because of the reporting on Meta and other companies training LLMs on pirated books, I’d highly recommend the book Shadow Libraries (open access: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edited-volume/3600/Shadow-LibrariesAccess-to-Knowledge-in-Global).

I just read it while working on the Wikipedia article about shadow libraries, and it’s a fascinating history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_library

I fear the already fraught conversations about shadow libraries will take a turn for the worse now that it’s overlapping with the incredibly fraught conversations about AI training.

#AI #LibGen #OpenAccess