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Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton

96 points · 130 comments · speckx

  1. patall · · focus · HN ↗
    Can someone explain why the old books could really be relevant. I get the pre-nuclear steel analogy, but why is this relevant given how much more modern texts exist. A few years ago, millions of yahoo groups were erased but now a few thousand books are what is needed to run a successful AI company? I mean, it can barely be about the information in those books (that would be very often outdated), but just for a little more text (with ever less marginal gain), what is the benefit?
    1. theroadnotbacon · · focus · HN ↗
      I also wonder if it’s used for text generation in image models! Awful lot of typefaces, sizes, orientations, and words in those books.
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