“Did you know that Wikipedia articles are used by AI technologies, so improving the quality of Wikipedia also improves the quality of AI?” — #WikipediaxAI
Since its launch in 2001, Wikipedia has been one of the most dominant sources of information on the internet. As an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia has shaped how people access knowledge for more than two decades. One reason is that Google often places Wikipedia pages at the top of search results for many topics. However, as the world enters the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI), user behavior in searching for information is changing. With the rise of AI-powered summaries and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, people can now get instant answers without visiting original sources. …
“Did you know that Wikipedia articles are used by AI technologies, so improving the quality of Wikipedia also improves the quality of AI?” — #WikipediaxAI
Since its launch in 2001, Wikipedia has been one of the most dominant sources of information on the internet. As an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia has shaped how people access knowledge for more than two decades. One reason is that Google often places Wikipedia pages at the top of search results for many topics. However, as the world enters the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI), user behavior in searching for information is changing. With the rise of AI-powered summaries and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, people can now get instant answers without visiting original sources. Users can obtain information without opening or reading Wikipedia at all. What is often overlooked is that much of the information provided by tools like ChatGPT is built on the contributions of Wikipedia volunteers. This shift has the potential to reduce Wikipedia’s readership, which may also indirectly affect the regeneration of volunteer contributors over time.
In November 2025, Wikimedia Indonesia organized a series of thematic activities focused on AI under the hashtag #WikipediaxAI. This online initiative aimed to raise public awareness about the importance of Wikipedia’s role amid the growing popularity of generative AI, while also serving as an open invitation for anyone to help improve the quantity and quality of Wikipedia articles. The program included online editing trainings, community meetup, and panel discussion. The initiative began with a reflective column written by a volunteer and published on the Wikimedia Indonesia website, as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Indonesian Wikipedia, titled “The Free Encyclopedia in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”.
During the first and second weeks of November, we held two rounds of basic Wikipedia editing training, known as WikiLatih WikipediaxAI, which were attended by 34 newcomers. In these sessions, participants added AI-related articles to Wikipedia, learned about the guideline for using generative AI tools in Wikipedia editing, and contributed to the Wikipedia:ProyekWiki Kecerdasan Buatan. This newly established WikiProject serves as a space to improve the number, quality, and accuracy of AI-related articles in Indonesian Wikipedia, which are still very limited. In the third week of November, an online meetup session (Temu Daring) was held, inviting Wikipedia contributors to further develop AI-related stub articles. Throughout the WikipediaxAI program, a total of 79 articles were developed by 62 participants. This included 30 new AI-related articles, such as Retrieval-augmented generation* (RAG), Kecerdasan buatan sumber terbuka, and Keruntuhan model.*
20251115 WikiLatih WikipediaxAI Sesi II (2) by Ayu Sulastri from Wikimedia Indonesia. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The closing event of WikipediaxAI was Bincang Wiki titled “Wikipedia, AI, and the Future of Knowledge.” This panel discussion explored the connections between Wikipedia, artificial intelligence, and the future of human knowledge. The event brought together AI academic and researcher, administrator of Indonesian Wikipedia, lecturer, student, and contributor of our local-language Wikipedia. The discussion covered the following topics:
- “Does Wikipedia make AI more intelligent?” by Afiahayati, S.Kom., M.Cs., Ph.D.
- “Will Wikipedia survive in the age of AI?” by Benny Lin
- “Wikipedia vs AI in education” by Kanyadibya Cendana Prasetyo, S.IP., M.DevSt.
- “Learning and sharing knowledge on Wikipedia” by Almasiva Tirta Maedy
- “The existence of local language content in the age of AI” by Adhmi Fauzan
The panelists shared their insights and interacted with participants during a question-and-answer session. The event was held on November 29, 2025, and livestreamed on the Wikimedia Indonesia YouTube channel.
*“The role of Wikipedia is extremely important as one of the main training data sources for generative AI. Because of that, if Wikipedia is a primary source for generative AI, it really needs to be curated. What if Wikipedia articles are generated by AI? That is not necessarily a problem, as long as the information is valid and goes through a proper curation process.” *
— Afiahayati, S.Kom., M.Cs., Ph.D. in her keynote speech “Does Wikipedia make AI more intelligent?”
“Keep contributing to Wikipedia to break the ouroboros effect and to create original, useful content for many other platforms. Make the world better, because no one can accurately predict the future. Whether Wikipedia disappears or not depends on you; its contributors.”
— Benny Lin in his talk “Will Wikipedia survive in the age of AI?”
Can you help us translate this article?
In order for this article to reach as many people as possible we would like your help. Can you translate this article to get the message out?