{"id":2693,"date":"2025-03-28T18:10:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T18:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/wikimedia-foundation-execs-on-ai-scraping-attribution-wikis-future\/"},"modified":"2025-03-28T18:10:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T18:10:38","slug":"wikimedia-foundation-execs-on-ai-scraping-attribution-wikis-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/wikimedia-foundation-execs-on-ai-scraping-attribution-wikis-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Wikimedia Foundation Execs on AI Scraping, Attribution & Wiki\u2019s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As large language models absorb Wikipedia\u2019s content without attribution, the world\u2019s free encyclopedia finds itself at the center of the AI information economy\u2014struggling to keep control over the knowledge it helped build Unsplash+<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wikipedia, the world\u2019s largest encyclopedia, is painstakingly human. Contributions to its pages are labored over and debated by hundreds of thousands of active volunteer editors\u2014some so dedicated they compete to update celebrity deaths first. But in recent years the site has also emerged as a backbone of A.I., with its data increasingly relied upon by the technology\u2019s large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI<\/a>\u2019s ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

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In the early days of LLMs, tech companies told Wikipedia they only needed to train their models on its data once a year. \u201cThat\u2019s how it started,\u201d Lane Becker<\/a>, senior director of earned revenue at the Wikimedia Foundation, told Observer. \u201cNow, it is rapacious,\u201d he added. As Wikipedia becomes more central to the infrastructure A.I., the organization is grappling with rising bot traffic, the need for attribution and how to sustain its ecosystem in the face of powerful new users.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia is one of the ten most-visited websites in the world. It doesn\u2019t run ads and offers its content for free, relying instead on donations from readers. The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation oversees the site but takes a mostly hands-off approach to its rules and content moderation. Wikipedia\u2019s vast, structured troves of information are almost tailor-made for A.I. As of July 2023, every single major LLM<\/a> had been trained on Wikipedia, according to the Foundation. While the team initially worried that A.I.-generated answers might reduce traffic to the site, Becker says \u201cwe haven\u2019t seen any significant decline related to A.I. traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attributions, however, remain a sticking point. Citations not only give credit but also help Wikipedia attract new editors and donors. \u201d If our content is getting sucked into an LLM without attribution or links, that\u2019s a real problem for us in the short term,\u201d said Becker. \u201cIn the medium and long term, it\u2019s a real problem for these A.I. systems because they need us to keep creating this content.\u201d He added that bot traffic pulling Wikipedia data is at an all-time high. \u201cWe are clearly entering an era where the level of automated traffic to our service is rising\u2014and it isn\u2019t going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rebecca MacKinnon (left) and Lane Becker (right). @pierrelzm, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons and ZMcCune (WMF), CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Becker hopes A.I. firms will eventually support Wikipedia\u2019s survival with funding and policy commitments. \u201cHow do we continue to support an open, free content and knowledge ecosystem while also recognizing some of these companies really want a lot out of us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming up against powerful critics<\/h3>\n

LLMs aren\u2019t Wikipedia\u2019s only challenge. In recent months, the site has come under attack by prominent conservative voices in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk<\/a>\u2014once a fan\u2014has since become a vocal critic<\/a>, citing frustrations with how Wikipedia describes his role at Tesla (TSLA)<\/a> and its account of a controversial salute he made in January. Earlier this year, Musk told his followers on X to \u201cdefund\u201d Wikipedia<\/a>, accusing it of left-leaning bias.<\/p>\n

Such criticism is nothing new. \u201cWe\u2019re used to this type of thing around the world, frankly,\u201d said Rebecca MacKinnon<\/a>, vice president of global advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation. But in the A.I. era, she notes, Wikipedia\u2019s content matters more than ever. \u201cI could come up with a whole list of countries where we\u2019ve heard from powerful people who don\u2019t like their Wikipedia page,\u201d she said. \u201cBut their Wikipedia page matters a lot more than it used to. The stakes have gotten higher for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one reason the Foundation is pushing harder for protections\u2014both for the platform and its editors, many of whom use anonymous usernames to avoid harassment. \u201cProtecting their privacy is a critical element of the work that we do,\u201d Becker said.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2001, Wikipedia has weathered its share of crises. \u201cEvery year there\u2019s something, right?\u201d said MacKinnon, pointing to China\u2019s 2019 ban of the platform as just one of many examples. \u201cThe community is always thinking and debating about new things that come up and how to adapt,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to keep on trucking.\u201d<\/p>\n

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