Wikipedia has announced that it will AI in its operations but will not replace its human volunteers

On Wednesday, Wikipedia unveiled its new AI strategy for the next three years, emphasizing that it will not displace its community of editors and volunteers with AI. Instead, Wikipedia plans to use AI to develop features that remove technical barriers, providing editors, moderators, and patrollers with tools to perform their tasks more efficiently without worrying about technical challenges.

Amid concerns that AI could eventually disrupt jobs, particularly in content creation, Wikipedia clarifies that it intends to use AI as a supportive tool to enhance human work, not replace it. The organization will focus on applying generative AI in areas where it excels, such as automating repetitive tasks through AI-assisted workflows. Additionally, AI will improve information discovery on Wikipedia, freeing up editors to focus on the human judgment needed to build consensus around creating, editing, and updating entries.

AI will also assist editors by automating translations and streamlining the onboarding process for new volunteers.

Chris Albon, Director of Machine Learning at the Wikimedia Foundation, shared in a blog post, “We believe our future work with AI will succeed not just because of what we do, but how we do it.” He emphasized that Wikipedia’s efforts will be guided by its core values, principles, and policies, such as privacy and human rights. The organization will adopt a human-centered approach, prioritize human agency, prefer open-source or open-weight AI, uphold transparency, and take a nuanced approach to multilingualism, a cornerstone of Wikipedia.

Albon also argued that maintaining Wikipedia’s knowledge base has become increasingly vital as AI systems, known for occasional errors or fabricated responses, continue to grow in prominence.