"We're not asking for charity": Wikimedia CEO calls out AI for unpaid data use
Wikimedia CEO warns of an AI-driven traffic loss
TL;DR
- Wikipedia page views fell by 8% in the past year, a trend linked to the rise of AI.
- Generative AI models heavily rely on Wikipedia's content but some companies do not pay for its use.
- Wikimedia Foundation charges commercial users for data access, with payments forming 10% of its operating expenses.
- Major AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are not publicly listed as enterprise customers.
- Roughly 80% of Wikimedia's budget comes from small donations, often prompted by site visitors.
- Declining traffic can lead to fewer new editors for Wikipedia.
- AI is being used to assist Wikipedia's human editors, but not to replace them.
- There's a concern that AI may create a knowledge divide, especially for languages less commercially attractive to AI companies.