That makes it even worse, then. This proves the original point.
> The idea that people or corporations should hold onto books forever because of a cultural “ick” about throwing out books is a bit ridiculous.
If we're building black and white straw man arguments, then sure, let's not archive anything.
I don’t know what the “original point” is here, but these AI companies are not providing “book excerpt services” and do not claim to. ChatGPT at least will refuse to provide detailed book excerpts (I hit a week or two ago myself).
> If we're building black and white straw man arguments, then sure, let's not archive anything.
It seems like you are the one creating the straw man. Do you have evidence that these companies are shredding actually rare books? The only cited concrete examples (in this thread anyway) are all rather boring. I seriously doubt they are shredding 200 year old books because why would they?