Wikipedia and AI: Collaboration, Not Replacement

Wikimedia Foundation's AI Strategy: Empowering, Not Replacing, Editors

The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization responsible for Wikipedia, has unveiled its artificial intelligence strategy for the coming three years. Crucially, this strategy focuses on augmenting the work of the Wikipedia community, rather than substituting human editors and volunteers with AI systems.

The foundation intends to leverage AI to develop new functionalities that dismantle existing technical obstacles. This will provide editors, moderators, and patrollers with streamlined tools, enabling them to focus on their core responsibilities without being hindered by technical complexities.

AI as a Tool for Enhancement

Recognizing anxieties surrounding the potential for AI to displace human workers, particularly in content creation roles, Wikipedia emphasizes its commitment to utilizing AI to simplify tasks. The goal is to make people’s jobs easier, not to eliminate them.

The organization plans to deploy generative AI in areas where it demonstrates particular strengths. This targeted approach will maximize the benefits of AI while safeguarding the role of human contributors.

Specific Applications of AI

Automated Workflows will be implemented to handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks. This will free up editors to concentrate on more complex and nuanced aspects of content development.

AI will also be used to enhance information discoverability on Wikipedia. Improved search and navigation will allow editors to dedicate more time to the collaborative deliberation necessary for building consensus on entries.

Further applications include:

• Automated translation services to facilitate cross-lingual collaboration.
• Assistance with the onboarding of new volunteers, making it easier for individuals to contribute to the platform.

A Human-Centered Approach

“The success of our AI initiatives will depend not only on the technologies we employ, but also on our methodology,” state Chris Albon, Director of Machine Learning, and Leila Zia, Director and Head of Research, in a recent blog post.

Their approach will be guided by the Wikimedia Foundation’s core values, including privacy and human rights. Priorities include a human-centered design, the use of open-source or open-weight AI models, and a commitment to transparency.

The Importance of Human Oversight

The organization highlights the increasing importance of maintaining the accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia’s knowledge base. This is particularly relevant given the propensity of current generative AI models to occasionally produce errors or “hallucinate” information.

A nuanced understanding of multilinguality, a cornerstone of Wikipedia, will also be central to the foundation’s AI strategy.