Published on 6/24/2026
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, announced that the platform opposes the use of artificial intelligence in editing its articles, explaining that he “does not trust” this technology enough.
“We will not allow artificial intelligence to edit (our articles) directly because we cannot trust it enough,” he said on the sidelines of an event organized by Octopus Energy in London.
He added to Agence France-Presse that while “it is difficult to know what artificial intelligence will look like in 25 years,” the problem of it making mistakes “is still very serious” for Wikipedia, which aims to collect the world’s knowledge on one platform thanks to the free contributions of millions of volunteers.
However, the platform does not rule out using artificial intelligence programs to pursue certain specialized topics that its editors may not notice.
While Wikipedia seeks to limit the role of artificial intelligence in its operations, AI systems rely on its content to answer users’ questions.
Jimmy Wales explained that despite an “8% decrease in human visits” linked to competition from AI, “we have seen an increase in visits” due to strong growth in visits from AI bots.
This decline in human visits is “significant, but not catastrophic,” according to Wells, who founded Wikipedia with Larry Sanger in 2001.
Wikipedia has signed agreements with many technology giants. While its content remains free, it is asking the AI companies that “inundate it with millions of queries” to compensate it by giving it its “fair share” of the revenue from the use of its articles.
Wells did not mention the exact amount of the agreements, but said he was “quite satisfied with the progress made” in this area, adding: “We have had great success with many of the big players, and we are starting to ban those who are not behaving properly.”
