Wikipedia bans AI-generated text in new policy

This week, Wikipedia, the nonprofit online encyclopedia platform, officially banned the use of artificial intelligence-generated text for article content. The decision followed a community vote of 40 to 2 among the site’s editors. According to a report by news outlet 404 Media, which reported on the vote regarding the new policy, this change represents a significant shift in how the platform regulates automated writing tools. The new policy updates and clarifies previous, vaguer guidelines on the platform, which had previously stated that Large Language Models (LLMs)—the AI systems that power text generation—should not be used to generate new Wikipedia articles from scratch. Under the updated rules, the platform now explicitly prohibits the use of LLMs to generate or rewrite article content.

Despite the strict ban on content generation, the new policy stopped short of prohibiting AI entirely from the site’s editorial processes. Editors are still permitted to use LLMs for basic copyedits under specific conditions. The new guidelines allow editors to use LLMs to suggest basic copyedits to their own writing and incorporate some of those suggestions after human review, provided that the model does not introduce any new content of its own. This distinction ensures that while automated tools can assist with phrasing and grammar, human editors must remain the sole authors of the actual information presented, reviewing the work to ensure no new content is introduced. Under this framework, the responsibility for the final text remains entirely with the human editor who conducts the review.

The community remains highly cautious about the risks of integrating AI into the encyclopedia’s collaborative writing process. According to the Wikipedia policy document, “Caution is required, because LLMs can go beyond what you ask of them and change the meaning of the text such that it is not supported by the sources cited.” This caution reflects ongoing concerns among Wikipedia’s volunteer-driven community of editors regarding the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated information, especially as websites scramble to establish ground rules for AI usage.

Why it matters

As AI makes inroads into the worlds of editorial and media, websites are scrambling to establish ground rules for its usage.