Decline in Wikipedia Traffic Linked to AI Usage

According to Bernadette Meehan, the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, web traffic to Wikipedia has seen a decrease, attributed largely to the rise of AI technologies. She referred to the platform as “the backbone” of these AI systems.

Wikipedia’s page views dropped by eight percent over the past year. Meehan shared this insight during a conversation with Axios, highlighting that while the downturn wasn’t unexpected, it still raises concerns. She seems aware of the shift in how people are searching for information these days.

AI models significantly utilize content from Wikipedia, yet many of these systems provide answers based on Wikipedia without actually directing users to the website, which Meehan believes threatens the sustainability of this community-driven resource.

Meehan pointed out a notable issue: many generative AI platforms rely heavily on Wikipedia’s extensive repository of content but some companies resist paying for access. Wikimedia does have fees for larger commercial users needing reliable, high-volume data.

Currently, payments from well-known enterprise users like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta only cover about ten percent of Wikimedia’s operating costs. Interestingly, the two major players in generative AI, OpenAI and Anthropic, are not listed among these public enterprise customers.

However, Meehan mentioned to Axios that not all agreements have been made public, and she avoided specifying any companies beyond those publicly known.

Traffic is crucial for Wikimedia; they rely heavily on donations, with about eighty percent of their budget coming from small contributions often solicited during site visits. With fewer visitors, there’s a concern about a decline in new editors—after all, many Wikipedia editors start as users.

Additionally, Wikipedia has been criticized for its strong left-wing bias. For instance, it recently labeled feminists like J.K. Rowling, who argue against the notion that men can become women, as “exclusionary.”