Why Wikipedia Is Blocking AI from Editing Its Articles
LONDON — Wikipedia will not allow artificial intelligence tools to directly edit articles on its platform because the technology still cannot be fully trusted, co-founder Jimmy Wales told AFP on Monday.
The problem of AI “hallucinations” — where fabricated information is presented with confidence — has been reduced with newer models but remains “very, very bad,” Wales said on the sidelines of a climate action week event in London. He added, however, that AI agents could prove useful in alerting Wikipedia’s community of millions of editors to niche news that might otherwise be missed.
“We would not let it edit directly because you can’t really trust it enough,” he said.
The comments come as AI platforms increasingly rely on Wikipedia’s content to answer user queries. That has contributed to an overall growth in visitors from bots, while human traffic has dropped eight percent. Wales described the decline as “meaningful” but “not a disaster” for the online encyclopaedia, which ranks among the 10 most visited websites globally. Wikipedia, created in 2001, depends on donations from users, so its business model does not directly rely on traffic.
Wales also encouraged AI companies to “pay their fair share,” explaining that “hammering us with millions of requests costs real money” in server costs. Wikipedia has already signed agreements with several tech giants and is “starting to block the ones who aren’t behaving themselves.”
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