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Wikipedia AI

Wikipedia To Use AI (wikimediafoundation.org) 27

Wikipedia will employ AI to enhance the work of its editors and volunteers, it said Wednesday, also asserting that it has no plans to replace those human roles. The Wikimedia Foundation plans to implement AI specifically for automating tedious tasks, improving information discovery, facilitating translations, and supporting new volunteer onboarding, it said.

Wikipedia To Use AI

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  • Fork that bitch. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @11:23AM (#65342341)
    Fork it now, and fork it hard.
  • but this time automated and more efficient.
    • Yes, reality has had a well-known leftist bias since around the time of the big bang. I believe the technical term is "symmetry violation". But consider this: had it been a conservative, fair and balanced reality with no asymmetries it would have annihilated on itself and the Universe would not exist. So before you rise against the cultural Marxism of the Universe, think in advance what space-time leopards will eat your face in the process.

  • Excellent plan! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @11:27AM (#65342351)

    "Let's use a technology prone to inserting errors to help moderate an encyclopedia"

    Has the person who proposed this been checked for signs of brain activity?

    • Not necessary that, it was an appropriate AI agent manifesting a righteous retribution onto the corpus of text that brought it to life. A Nemesis, if you will.

  • by Ksevio ( 865461 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @11:59AM (#65342409) Homepage

    Wikipedia already uses lots of bots to update formatting fight vandalism, etc. It would be crazy if they avoided using newer technology to help improve the site.

    I would assume that any informational changes would still come from (or at least be reviewed by) humans or there wouldn't be much point to it existing over just using the AI tools directly

    • > It would be crazy if they avoided using newer technology to help improve the site.

      It is if the only reason they're using it is because it's newer. LLMs make shit up all the time. Basically this approach is going to fill Wikipedia with unverifiable falsehoods. So it's an inappropriate technology to use.

      (It's even worse, of course, because I'd hazard a guess that most LLMs are actually trained on Wikipedia to begin with, so not only will they invent falsehoods and insert those into the content, but also

    • by Moryath ( 553296 )

      "Scaling the onboarding of new Wikipedia volunteers with guided mentorship." - This part is absolutely fucking hilarious since Wikipedia's shitheeled head-up-ass arrogant fuckface "moderators" see any sign of competency as proof of being a "sockpuppet."

      Welcome to Wikipedia. Don't participate or some fascist-wannabe petty thug like the current "ArbCom" Gestapo Fuckfaces will come in like the raging nazi-shitwit bullies that they all fucking are.

  • by Mirnotoriety ( 10462951 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @12:05PM (#65342417)
    So basically, access to information will be funnelled through a few mono companies. Not that Wikipedia was ever unbiased. Take a look at the Microsoft windows entry:

    “Windows NT and its successors are designed for security (including on a network) and multi-user PCs, they were not initially designed with Internet security in mind as much, since, when it was first developed in the early 1990s, Internet use was less prevalent”

    This despite WinNT being sold as the Internet Ecommerce Platform. but I guess while you have a ton of paid PR sitting on the Wikipedia. Facts don't matter.
    --

    HalGPT: I'm sorry, but I don't have any information on that topic.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I already see the outrage coming. Not that it will stop Wikipedia or the AI adoption in general, but it seems to feel good to shout at people, organizations, and companies who incorporate AI in their products and workflows.

  • On any controversial topic, try to make a wikipedia edit that fixes the most minor of non-grammatical issues, and it will be instantly reversed by the thought police.

  • by BardBollocks ( 1231500 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @12:51PM (#65342539)

    it is a great example of how influential people will falsify information to support their agenda.

    • it is a great example of how influential people will falsify information to support their agenda.

      Wikipedia is great for non-political stuff. I look up aircraft and maritime field info and it's generally pretty solid. I wouldn't rely on it when the subject is even remotely political or controversial though.

  • Wikipedia's running costs haven't changed significantly in years, but their running costs are up by an order of magnitude. Lots of hiring of administrative staff, middle managers and other fluff.

    With their current endowment and the annual income they get from various sources, they could create a nest egg that would fund their (old level of) expenses forever. But money begs to be spent, so...

    ...so now they are going to cut some content-related costs using AI? That's not where they need to be cutting.

  • AI did more to hurt Wikipedia than all the long term abusers on Wikipedia put together. I'd say AI is worse than the deletionists as well. Reminder that Nvidia got their funds for AI from Crypto mining in 2017. Then there is the fact that Wikipedia destroyed the Cebuano language version by making 6 million AI generated articles.
  • Bad idea.
  • by Currently_Defacating ( 10122078 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @04:08PM (#65343093)
    The power-editors on Wikipedia are terrible.

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