Becker’s Books owner Charlie Becker suspects artificial intelligence may explain a surge in unusual online purchases, though he has no proof.
HOUSTON, Texas — The owner of a longtime Spring Branch-area bookstore says a sharp increase in unusual online orders has left him questioning where some of his books are going and whether artificial intelligence companies or their suppliers could be behind the demand.
Charlie Becker, whose parents opened Becker’s Books in 1993, told ABC13 that online orders began rising this year in a way that caught his attention. He said much of the business was coming from a single buyer that was having books sent to another location. His concern grew after the same company placed an order for 70 different titles that Becker described as rare or unusually impractical. One example was a how-to manual for a computer program dating back about 35 years.
Becker has not identified the buyer publicly, and there is no confirmed evidence that the orders are connected to an artificial intelligence company or that the books are being destroyed. His suspicion comes as the technology industry’s demand for books and other written material has drawn greater scrutiny over how companies obtain material used to build and train AI systems. Becker said one detail stood out to him: The books being ordered were not available online in digital form.
The concern has taken on added significance because court records in a copyright case involving AI company Anthropic documented the company’s acquisition and destructive scanning of millions of physical books. According to a federal court ruling and reporting by The Associated Press, Anthropic bought books in bulk, removed their bindings, scanned their pages and retained digital copies. The physical books were then discarded. The digital material became part of an internal research library, with portions used in developing the company’s Claude AI models.
The court case did not establish any connection between Anthropic and Becker’s Books. It does, however, provide a documented example of why a bookseller might question unexplained demand for physical titles that are difficult to find electronically. U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled in June 2025 that Anthropic’s use of lawfully purchased books to train its AI models qualified as fair use under copyright law. Separately, the company faced claims involving millions of books obtained from pirated online libraries. Anthropic later agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors and publishers over those works, and a federal judge approved the settlement in July 2026.
For Becker, the issue is not simply whether a bookstore can make money from an unexpected buyer. He told ABC13 that the store has generally tried to avoid transactions when it appears books are being treated only as commodities rather than as works meant to be read, collected or preserved. “We’ve always taken the stance that if it looks like books are becoming too commodified, like people are buying them for reasons other than what you’d use a book for, we try to opt out of that,” Becker said.
That concern can become more complicated for used and rare books because replacing a copy may not be as simple as ordering another one from a publisher. Some older, specialized or out-of-print works exist in limited numbers in the resale market. Becker said books can gradually disappear from circulation even without a coordinated effort to destroy them, as rare titles move through resale systems and may eventually be liquidated when they do not sell.
Becker said he supports artificial intelligence and does not oppose businesses making money. His concern centers instead on who ultimately determines the fate of books that may be difficult to replace. The unexplained orders have led him to ask a broader preservation question: “Who do you think should make the decision over which books are preserved and which are sold?”
For now, the purpose of the orders received by Becker’s Books remains unconfirmed. No evidence made public by Becker or ABC13 establishes that the buyer is acquiring the books for AI training or destructive scanning. The unusual purchases nevertheless place the Houston shop within a wider debate over how physical books are being sourced as technology companies seek increasingly large collections of written material for artificial intelligence systems.
Author note: Last updated August 11, 2026.