Wikipedia Outlines Plan to Stay Relevant in the AI Era
Wikipedia has unveiled a straightforward approach to remain sustainable in the age of artificial intelligence, even as its website traffic continues to decline.
In a recent blog post, the Wikimedia Foundation — the nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia — urged AI developers to make “responsible” use of its content. It emphasized the importance of proper attribution and encouraged companies to access its data through Wikimedia Enterprise, its paid platform.
The Wikimedia Enterprise service allows organizations to use Wikipedia’s vast collection of knowledge efficiently without overloading its servers. The Foundation also noted that the revenue generated from this paid model supports its broader nonprofit mission to provide free access to knowledge for everyone.
Although the Foundation stopped short of warning of legal repercussions for unauthorized scraping, it revealed that automated AI bots had been disguising themselves as human users to extract content. After improving its detection systems, Wikipedia discovered that much of the surge in website traffic during May and June came from these bots. At the same time, genuine human visits fell by 8% compared to the previous year.
Wikimedia Calls for Responsible AI Use and Contributor Recognition
To address this, Wikipedia issued new guidelines for AI developers, stressing that generative AI tools should clearly attribute information sourced from the platform. This ensures recognition for the volunteer contributors whose efforts make the encyclopedia possible.
The post also underscored the importance of transparency and participation, urging platforms to make source information visible and encourage users to visit and contribute to Wikipedia. Without such engagement, it warned, the site risks losing volunteers and donor support that sustain its open, collaborative model.
Earlier in the year, the Wikimedia Foundation introduced an AI strategy focused on supporting, not replacing, its human editors. The plan includes using artificial intelligence to streamline repetitive tasks, improve translations, and enhance editorial workflows — ensuring AI remains a tool to empower contributors rather than substitute them.
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