Nippan Group Holdings, a Japanese ebook wholesaler, has confirmed that it had offered books to U.S. synthetic intelligence agency Anthropic, sources acquainted with the matter mentioned Wednesday.
In a letter addressed to the Japan Ebook Publishers Affiliation, an trade group, Nippan Group mentioned that Nippan IPS, a subsidiary that sells Japanese books abroad, concluded a cope with Anthropic in November 2024 and offered books to it between December that 12 months and final December, based on the sources.
Earlier than putting the deal, Nippan IPS requested concerning the goal of the ebook purchases, the letter mentioned. However Nippan Group mentioned that the unit had not been conscious that Anthropic’s purchases have been for AI studying, based on the letter.
Nippan Group didn’t disclose what number of books have been offered or the whole buy quantity, whereas planning to reply inquiries from publishers. The affiliation shared the letter from Nippan Group with some 380 member publishers.
An inner doc from Anthropic, disclosed in a U.S. lawsuit, confirmed that the corporate entered right into a cope with “Nippan Japan” as a part of its Challenge Panama, which goals to scan books from everywhere in the world.
