Wikipedia is embracing artificial intelligence, though human editors will remain at the forefront. On Wednesday, the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia, revealed plans to incorporate generative AI into their editing framework, aiming to assist their volunteer workforce by alleviating some of the burdens associated with editing and moderation tasks.
Chris Albon, Director of Machine Learning at the foundation, underscored the intention not to allow AI to supplant human editors or generate Wikipedia content independently. Instead, AI will focus on “removing technical barriers” and alleviating “tedious tasks” that hinder editing processes, including background research, translation, and onboarding new volunteers. The objective is to enable editors to devote more time to critical deliberation rather than administrative chores. Albon stated, “We will take a human-centered approach and will prioritize human agency; we will prioritize using open-source or open-weight AI; we will prioritize transparency; and we will take a nuanced approach to multilinguality.”
Currently, AI technologies are already utilized to detect vandalism, facilitate content translation, and assess readability. However, prior to this initiative, AI tools were not available to aid editors directly. Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation has undertaken efforts to enhance the experience for its volunteers, introducing new features to streamline editing and even providing legal support against harassment stemming from right-wing campaigns.
As global information continues to expand, the number of active volunteers to manage and moderate that data is diminishing. This situation poses a challenge for Wikipedia, where concerns arise over the potential impact of AI overwhelming its user-driven model. Earlier this month, the Wikimedia Foundation announced a plan to develop an open access dataset of “structured Wikipedia content,” designed specifically for machine learning purposes—aimed at minimizing AI bots’ intrusiveness on the site. Increasing bot traffic has placed considerable strain on Wikimedia’s servers, with bandwidth consumption surging by 50 percent due to the influx of AI bots crawling the platform.
