Week 7 - Questions about AI and Wikipedia

 Summary

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly affected knowledge-sharing platforms like Wikipedia. A notable example occurred in December 2024, when the passing of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter led to a doubling of network traffic due to increased video views, resulting in temporary service delays. This incident underscores the challenges platforms face in managing sudden spikes in AI-driven engagement.


Additionally, the surge in bot traffic has raised infrastructure maintenance costs, limiting resources available for human users. This issue is compounded by copyright concerns, as indiscriminate data scraping by AI companies has sparked debates over compliance with Creative Commons licenses. In response, the Wikimedia Foundation is revising its policies to promote responsible infrastructure use.


Looking ahead, Wikipedia may undergo technological restructuring to manage AI traffic effectively, potentially expanding download dumps and restricting API access. The role of human editors will also become more critical as they verify the reliability of AI-generated content.


Financial pressures may lead the Wikimedia Foundation to encourage the use of paid APIs, such as Wikimedia Enterprise, creating new revenue models for sustainability. A collaborative framework between AI and humans is emerging, where AI handles data collection and content generation, while humans focus on fact-checking and ethical considerations.


To adapt to these changes, the Wikimedia Foundation must develop infrastructure management strategies that align with the AI era, seeking a balance between openness and sustainability through active community participation.


This version retains the key points while being more succinc.


My thought


I don't think that the development of AI is only having a good effect on Wikipedia. There are a lot of flyers and news articles on the Internet. Since AI learns even these, it can provide incorrect information to people who refer to Wikipedia. This is an obvious shortcoming and needs to be improved.

That's why I think the role of humans as beings who can make emotional and rational judgments will become more important. I also think that new mathematical proofs or the discovery of new principles are still the exclusive domain of humans.


Discussion


What is the role of wiki editors in the development of AI?

What abilities do humans excel at compared to AI?

How can each individual use AI effectively?


Comments

  1. Kim Jong MinApril 16, 2025 at 12:37 AM

    Great article. Here's my take on the questions.
    Wikipedia editors play an important role in AI development by organizing and updating reliable information, creating good material for AI to learn from. Knowledge created by people, like Wikipedia, is a great way to help AI understand the world and process speech and writing. Sure, AI is great at finding and calculating information quickly, but humans are better at understanding situations in depth, thinking creatively, and making ethical judgments. So we can do better with AI by using it for simple tasks and organizing information, and focusing on the critical thinking and creative activities that only humans can do.

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  2. CHAEBINApril 16, 2025 at 5:48 AM

    I agree that AI’s impact on Wikipedia isn’t always positive. It can easily spread misinformation if it learns from unreliable sources without understanding the full context. That’s why I also believe that the role of human editors will become even more important. At the same time, how can AI and humans collaborate to create the best balance?

    ReplyDelete
  3. 권현지April 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM

    I think humans can make up for the lack of factual verification on artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence often spreads false information. For example, generative AI naturally spreads false information. It is expected that the act of humans directly checking information generated by artificial intelligence and finding sources or grounds will become important.

    ReplyDelete

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