"After crunching the numbers to exclude armies of data-scraping AI bots, the Wikimedia Foundation says that between March and August this year, the number of Wikipedia page views coming from real humans declined by 8% year-on-year. The nonprofit, which supports Wikipedia, points the finger at the impact of generative AI and social media for the marked decline in how people now seek information online."
"That doesn't mean Wikipedia isn't still a strong presence in the world of online information. Though users may not be visiting Wikipedia directly, the Foundation points out that it remains one of the most popular sources of training data for large language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, meaning users are still getting knowledge from the site-just in a much more indirect way. The sheer volume of these data-scraping bots has caused issues for the platform, straining its resources and increasing its hosting costs."
Wikimedia Foundation data shows human Wikipedia page views declined 8% year-on-year between March and August after excluding data-scraping AI bots. The Foundation attributes much of the decline to generative AI and social media, noting search engines now provide direct answers often based on Wikipedia content and younger users increasingly turn to social video platforms. Wikipedia remains a major source of training data for large language models, so its content still reaches users indirectly. Widespread data scraping strains Wikimedia's resources and raises hosting costs. Falling direct traffic could reduce volunteer contributions and donor support. The Foundation urges AI firms and platforms to increase sourcing transparency and support.
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