OpenAI has gained access to 125,000 images from the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library to train its AI models, including rare historical texts and dissertations. The partnership, announced in March 2025, has raised concerns among university staff about reputational risks and environmental impacts.
TL;DR
- OpenAI partners with Oxford to train AI models on 125,000 images from Bodleian Library, including rare historical texts and dissertations.
- University staff express concerns over reputational risks and environmental impacts of the partnership.
- OpenAI is turning to physical, often historical, book collections for fresh data as scraped websites become saturated with AI-generated material.
What happened
The University of Oxford has allowed OpenAI to train its AI models on historical texts from its Bodleian Library, according to internal documents. The partnership, announced in March 2025, involves digitizing texts from the university's world-famous library to make the content more widely available for students and researchers. However, the announcement did not state that the material would be used for training OpenAI's models. By June 2025, 125,000 images scanned from historical dissertations had been shared with OpenAI from the Bodleian collection, including PhD theses from European and American universities written in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other texts scanned include a rare collection of 10,000 16th-century broadside ballads containing song lyrics and musical notes that were once circulated on Tudor street corners. Staff have also discussed digitizing 18th-century Irish state papers, the private letters of Irish novelist Marie Edgeworth, and Dorothy Hodgkin's penicillin notebooks.
Why it matters
The partnership between OpenAI and Oxford raises concerns about the reputational risks and environmental impacts of striking a deal involving an energy-intensive technology. University staff have expressed concerns about the effect on the university's environmental commitments and the reputational risk of partnering with OpenAI. The partnership also raises the prospect of the mass digitization of the Bodleian's collection consisting of 23 million items. The minutes also discussed the creation of an 'Ask the Bod' chatbot. The Bodleian's collections remain intact under the deal, unlike with secondhand book acquisitions elsewhere that are being pulped after scanning. Anthropic, OpenAI's close rival, has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring books and slicing off their spines so their contents can be scanned before having them pulped. Anthropic has said it does not buy and destroy rare and antiquarian books.
Key facts
- OpenAI has gained access to 125,000 images from the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library to train its AI models.
- The partnership between OpenAI and Oxford was announced in March 2025.
- The Bodleian collection includes PhD theses from European and American universities written in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- The collection also includes a rare collection of 10,000 16th-century broadside ballads containing song lyrics and musical notes.
- University staff have expressed concerns about the reputational risks and environmental impacts of the partnership.
- The partnership raises the prospect of the mass digitization of the Bodleian's collection consisting of 23 million items.
- Anthropic, OpenAI's close rival, has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring books and slicing off their spines so their contents can be scanned before having them pulped.
- The Bodleian's collections remain intact under the deal, unlike with secondhand book acquisitions elsewhere that are being pulped after scanning.
Context
OpenAI is turning to physical, often historical, book collections for fresh data as scraped websites become saturated with AI-generated material. The company has struck similar agreements with US research libraries such as Boston Public Library, Caltech, MIT, and the University of Michigan under a project called NextGenAI. Oxford is the only UK member of the project. The partnership between OpenAI and Oxford raises concerns about the reputational risks and environmental impacts of striking a deal involving an energy-intensive technology. University staff have expressed concerns about the effect on the university's environmental commitments and the reputational risk of partnering with OpenAI. The partnership also raises the prospect of the mass digitization of the Bodleian's collection consisting of 23 million items. The minutes also discussed the creation of an 'Ask the Bod' chatbot.
