First of all, it IS destroyed and it is a big deal. Hardcover copies of books especially 1st - 2nd edition ones (even with mistakes) are rarer than digital scans.

Maybe the Bodleian Library at Oxford University should give all their rare books to AI companies to scan and destroy them since it is not a "big deal" anyway.

Except that when they did do a pilot with OpenAI to scan these rare books, [0] they did NOT destroy them. I wonder why?

[0] https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/research-partnerships...