The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, announced new licensing agreements with companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) on the occasion of the encyclopedia’s 25th anniversary. The encyclopedia’s new partners include Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta Platforms, as well as the start-up Perplexity and the French company Mistral AI. Wikimedia has had a similar agreement with Alphabet’s Google since 2022. The agreements allow technology companies to use the encyclopedia’s content to train AI systems and represent a step toward better monetization of its content, the AP reported.
Wikipedia under pressure in the age of big tech and AI
Wikipedia is considered one of the last symbols of the original era of the open internet. However, its founding vision of freely available information has come under pressure in recent years from the dominance of large technology platforms and the rapid development of generative AI, which often draws data from publicly available content on the web. The online encyclopedia has 65 million articles in more than 300 languages and is the ninth most visited website on the internet. It has become popular in part because it is free for everyone. Its content is important for training AI models.
However, companies that use large amounts of freely available knowledge from Wikipedia to train their models have increased demand for servers and, consequently, the costs of the non-profit organization, whose primary source of income is small donations from the public. It also relies on a global community of volunteer editors. Its content is created and maintained by approximately 250,000 volunteer editors from around the world who write, edit, and verify information.
Wikipedia adapts its model to the AI era
The new agreements are intended to help one of the world’s most visited websites better monetize the intensive use of its content by AI companies. According to Wikimedia, these companies now pay for access to Wikipedia content “at a scale and speed tailored to their specific needs.” The organization did not provide financial or other details.
While AI training has sparked legal disputes elsewhere over copyright and other issues, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said he welcomes the use of the encyclopedia for training. He added that he wants to work with AI-focused companies, not block them. However, he said these companies should contribute fairly to the costs incurred by the encyclopedia’s operator.
Source: Reuters
