Wikipedia – the collaborative, free online encyclopedia that has been a go-to for internet users for 25 years – doesn’t want any articles written by artificial intelligence on its site.
“Text generated by large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek etc. often violates several of Wikipedia’s core content policies. For this reason, the use of LLMs to generate or rewrite article content is prohibited,” said Wikipedia in a page last edited this Friday.
It did list two exceptions to the prohibition. First, editors will be allowed to use LLMs “to suggest basic copyedits to their own writing, and to incorporate some of them after human review, provided the LLM does not introduce content of its own.”
Second, editors will be permitted to use LLMs to translate articles from another language’s Wikipedia into the English Wikipedia. However, those translations must follow the guidance laid out at Wikipedia:LLM-assisted translation, the site said.
As far as policing the use of LLMs by other users goes, Wikipedia also added that “some editors may have similar writing styles to LLMs, so assume good faith.” Furthermore, it said that “more evidence than just stylistic or linguistic signs is needed to justify sanctions, and it is best to consider the text’s compliance with core content policies and recent edits by the editor in question.”
The Verge noted that the AI prohibition applies to the English version of Wikipedia. According to the outlet, editors of the free encyclopedia have been dealing with AI-generated articles on the site for months, something that led the “community to implement a new policy” for “speedy deletion” of poorly written articles and the creation of the WikiProject AI Cleanup initiative.
This change also comes as OpenAI announced it would close down its Sora AI video app. Per The Hollywood Reporter, that change also came with Disney’s decision to pull out of a deal with Open AI that included a pledged investment of $1 billion.
