Wikipedia announced on Monday a straightforward plan to stay relevant and supported in the AI era, even as its web traffic continues to decline.
In a blog post, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the online encyclopedia, urged AI developers to use Wikipedia’s content responsibly by giving proper credit and accessing materials through its paid platform, Wikimedia Enterprise. The organization explained that this subscription-based service lets companies use Wikipedia’s content at scale without overloading its servers, while also helping to fund its nonprofit mission.
Although Wikipedia didn’t threaten legal action against companies that scrape its site, it revealed that AI bots had been pretending to be human while pulling data from its pages. After improving its bot-detection systems, the foundation discovered that much of the unusual traffic in May and June came from AI bots trying to avoid detection. At the same time, real human visits dropped by 8% compared to the previous year.
Wikipedia now wants AI developers to clearly credit the human contributors behind its articles. The foundation emphasized that people need to know where online information comes from to maintain trust and transparency. It warned that if AI systems keep pulling from Wikipedia without proper attribution or links back to the site, fewer people will visit, fewer volunteers will contribute, and fewer donors will support its mission.
Earlier this year, the Wikimedia Foundation introduced its own AI strategy for editors. The plan aims to use AI to support Wikipedia’s community by automating repetitive tasks, improving translation, and enhancing editorial tools, without replacing human editors.
With this new approach, Wikipedia hopes to strike a balance between embracing AI innovation and protecting the integrity of the volunteer-driven platform that has made it one of the most trusted sources of knowledge on the internet.
