If you believe that destroying books is bad, your issue is with copyright law, not the AI companies. The AI companies are just following copyright law -- they are allowed to move data from one format to another (thereby destroying the original), but not copy it.
>>Captai+(OP)
Not everything objectionable or unethical should or could necessarily be outlawed. "It's not illegal" is not really an argument or justification for anything.
>>baobun+O
I don't think CaptainFever's point is that it's acceptable because it's legal, but rather that copyright law is what prevents them from, say, donating the originals instead of throwing them away.