Not sure how feasible this is for new publications, but yes, absolutely buy second hand. I have a fairly large stack of yet to be read books gifted to me by people cleaning up book shelves, as well as large number of books from second hands store.

Most of these books are printed before 1990, so I know that no AI was involved, they are normally hardcovers, as those survive better, or are at least taken better care of.

For technical publications though it pretty rough. My go to book store normally have print on demand labeled as such. I don't have the best of luck with print on demand, so I tend to find an alternative.

I buy 95% of my books second hand.

Secondhand book stores are also usually much more interesting than even good new stores.