Wikipedia is using (some) generative AI now
- Wikipedia is integrating generative AI into its editing process to help reduce workload and improve quality control.
- The goal is not to replace human editors, but to use AI to remove technical barriers and tedious tasks, allowing editors to focus on content creation.
- AI will be used for tasks such as background research, translation, and onboarding new volunteers, freeing up time for editors to concentrate on deliberation.
- The Wikimedia Foundation is taking a human-centered approach to AI integration, prioritizing transparency, open-source development, and nuanced handling of multilingual content.
- AI will be used in conjunction with human editors, not as a replacement, to enhance the editing process and improve overall quality of Wikipedia content.
Wikipedia isn’t replacing their human editors with artificial intelligence yet – but they’re giving them a bit of an AI boost. On Wednesday, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, announced that it was integrating generative AI into its editing process as a means to help its volunteer and largely unpaid staff of moderators, editors, and patrollers reduce their workload and focus more on quality control.
In a statement, Chris Albon, the Director of Machine Learning at the foundation, emphasized that he did not want AI to replace their human editors or end up generating Wikipedia’s content. Rather, AI would be used to “remove technical barriers” and “tedious tasks” that impeded editors’ workflow, such as background research, translation, and onboarding new volunteers. The hope, he said, was to give editors the bandwidth to spend more time on deliberation and less on technical support. “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,” he wrote.
The site already uses AI to detect vandalism, tra …
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