Wikipedia turns 25 today and celebrates with an announcement that it signed new licensing agreements with a number of major artificial intelligence companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Perplexity and Mistral AI.
The agreements allow these companies to access Wikipedia content “at a volume and speed designed specifically for their needs.” The Wikimedia Foundation did not disclose the financial terms.
Google had already signed on as one of the first corporate customers in 2022. The deals follow the Wikimedia Foundation's push last year for AI developers to pay for access through an enterprise platform.
The foundation said human traffic had dropped by 8%, while bot visits – sometimes disguised to avoid detection – were putting a heavy strain on its servers.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said he welcomes AI training with the site's human-curated content, but that companies "should probably contribute and pay their fair share of the costs they impose on us."
The site remains the ninth most popular on the internet, hosting more than 65 million articles in 300 languages, maintained by around 250.000 volunteer editors.
See the presentation for Wikipedia's 25th anniversary
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
