Wikipedia, through the Wikimedia Foundation, has announced a clear strategy to sustain its operations and mission in the burgeoning era of artificial intelligence, a period marked by both technological advancements and challenges such as declining human traffic.

The popular online encyclopedia is urging AI developers to engage with its vast repository of knowledge “responsibly.” This call to action includes two primary directives: ensuring proper attribution for content derived from Wikipedia and accessing this content through its dedicated paid service, the Wikimedia Enterprise platform. The Foundation emphasizes that this opt-in, paid product allows companies to use Wikipedia’s content at scale without overburdening its servers. Furthermore, the subscription model of Wikimedia Enterprise supports the organization’s non-profit mission, ensuring the continued availability and development of free knowledge for all.

While the announcement does not include threats of penalties or legal repercussions for content scraping, Wikipedia has previously highlighted the issue of AI bots mimicking human users to scrape its website. Updates to its bot detection systems revealed that unusually high traffic volumes in May and June were largely attributable to AI bots actively trying to evade detection. At the same time, the organization reported a significant 8% year-over-year decline in human page views, underscoring the growing imbalance between automated and human interactions with its content.

In response, Wikipedia has formalized guidelines for AI developers and providers, with a cornerstone being the imperative for generative AI systems to provide clear attribution. This ensures proper credit to the human contributors whose efforts enrich the content that AI draws upon. The Foundation stressed that transparency is critical for trust, stating: “For people to trust information shared on the internet, platforms should make it clear where the information is sourced from and elevate opportunities to visit and participate in those sources.” It also warned that fewer direct visits to Wikipedia could reduce volunteer contributions and individual donations, jeopardizing its vital work.

Earlier this year, the Wikimedia Foundation unveiled its internal AI strategy for editors, outlining plans to deploy AI tools to assist with tedious workflow tasks, automate translations, and provide other support mechanisms. Critically, this strategy emphasizes that AI will augment and aid human editors rather than replace them, maintaining the human-centric ethos of Wikipedia’s content creation.