AI Is Killing Wikipedia... And That's A Good Thing!

Wikipedia has reported an 8% year-over-year decline in human pageviews, according to a blog post from Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation. The drop follows an update to Wikipedia’s bot detection systems that revealed much of the unusually high traffic in May and June came from bots designed to evade detection.

Miller attributes the decline to “the impact of generative AI and social media on how people seek information,” noting that “search engines are increasingly using generative AI to provide answers directly to searchers rather than linking to sites like ours.” He also cited younger generations “seeking information on social video platforms rather than the open web.”

The traffic decline coincides with the rise of AI-powered search engines like Perplexity, which offer alternative approaches to information gathering. Unlike Wikipedia’s single-source model, these platforms aggregate information from multiple sources in real-time.

Perplexity’s search process involves conducting simultaneous queries across news sites, academic papers, and journals before synthesizing the results with full citations. The platform’s Pro Search and Deep Research features can perform dozens of searches and review hundreds of sources to generate comprehensive reports on complex topics.

Wikipedia’s editorial structure has faced criticism over the years regarding potential bias in its volunteer editing system. The platform relies on anonymous editors to maintain articles, with a relatively small group of active editors controlling much of the content. Critics have pointed to instances where editors with clear ideological positions have influenced articles on controversial topics.

The AI search model addresses some of these concerns by drawing from diverse source pools rather than relying on editorial curation. When users query AI search engines, they receive information synthesized from multiple perspectives including news outlets across the political spectrum, academic sources, and primary documents.

Miller acknowledged the challenges this shift presents for Wikipedia, noting that “with fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.” He called on AI, search, and social companies using Wikipedia content to “encourage more visitors” to the website itself.

The Wikimedia Foundation is developing new frameworks for content attribution and has established teams focused on reaching new readers. Miller also encouraged users to “support content integrity and content creation” by looking for citations and clicking through to original source material when searching for information online.

Google has disputed claims that AI summaries reduce traffic from search, though the company has not provided specific data to support this position.

The shift in information consumption patterns reflects broader changes in how users access and verify information online, with multiple platforms now competing for attention in the knowledge discovery space.

What are your thoughts on the changing landscape of online information access?