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Wikimedia’s Founder Expresses Concern Over AI Hallucinations, Emphasizing Human Oversight in Content Editing
Jimmy Wales, one of Wikipedia’s co-founders, recently made it clear that current artificial intelligence systems do not yet possess sufficient reliability to directly edit entries on the platform. He acknowledged that although newer AI models have shown improvement in minimizing “hallucinations,” the issue of AI generating false information remains extremely serious. As a result, Wikipedia will not permit AI to take part in the editing process itself.

AI can function as a timing tool, but it cannot act as an editor.
Wales added that AI agents are not completely useless. They can serve as reminders, assisting Wikipedia’s community of millions of human editors in keeping track of minor news stories that might otherwise be missed. Nevertheless, when it comes to editing core content, humans remain the only trustworthy participants. He emphasized, “We won’t allow AI to directly edit because you truly cannot rely on it completely.”
Human traffic has declined by 8%, but Wikipedia does not depend on traffic for its survival.
At the same time, a clear trend is emerging: major AI platforms are using Wikipedia content to answer user queries, which has led to an overall rise in visits from AI crawlers, despite a 8% drop in traffic from human users. Wales, who is currently on the board of directors of the Wikimedia Foundation, views this shift as “worth noting” but not as a catastrophic situation.
This is because Wikipedia was established in 2001 and relies primarily on user donations to fund its operations, meaning its business model is not directly tied to traffic levels. However, Wales has called on AI companies to “contribute their fair share of costs,” given that sending millions of requests places real strain on Wikipedia’s servers. He stated that Wikipedia has had considerable success in reaching cooperation agreements with several tech giants and has begun blocking platforms that fail to comply with guidelines, though the long-term impact remains to be determined.
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Jimmy Wales, one of Wikipedia’s co-founders, recently made it clear that current artificial intelligence systems do not yet possess sufficient reliability to directly edit entries on the platform. He acknowledged that although newer AI models have shown improvement in minimizing “hallucinations,” the issue of AI generating false information remains extremely serious. As a result, Wikipedia will not permit AI to take part in the editing process itself.

AI can function as a timing tool, but it cannot act as an editor.
Wales added that AI agents are not completely useless. They can serve as reminders, assisting Wikipedia’s community of millions of human editors in keeping track of minor news stories that might otherwise be missed. Nevertheless, when it comes to editing core content, humans remain the only trustworthy participants. He emphasized, “We won’t allow AI to directly edit because you truly cannot rely on it completely.”
Human traffic has declined by 8%, but Wikipedia does not depend on traffic for its survival.
At the same time, a clear trend is emerging: major AI platforms are using Wikipedia content to answer user queries, which has led to an overall rise in visits from AI crawlers, despite a 8% drop in traffic from human users. Wales, who is currently on the board of directors of the Wikimedia Foundation, views this shift as “worth noting” but not as a catastrophic situation.
This is because Wikipedia was established in 2001 and relies primarily on user donations to fund its operations, meaning its business model is not directly tied to traffic levels. However, Wales has called on AI companies to “contribute their fair share of costs,” given that sending millions of requests places real strain on Wikipedia’s servers. He stated that Wikipedia has had considerable success in reaching cooperation agreements with several tech giants and has begun blocking platforms that fail to comply with guidelines, though the long-term impact remains to be determined.
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