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📂 **Category**: Business,Culture,The Big Interview
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Jimmy Wales Wikipedia He’s been called the last decent tech baron. Sounds like an attractive sign, though I usually associate it more with yacht-dwelling ranchers who feed their herds locally grown macadamia nuts; The type of person who could recently be found wining and dining with the President of the United States and his coterie of MAGA sycophants.
Wales, on the other hand, keeps things relatively low-key. Although the site he founded, Wikipedia, turns 25 this month, he seems more interested in fixing his home’s Wi-Fi than joining the performative power games of the tech elite. He’s also spent the past few months promoting a new book, The seven rules of trustwhich uses Wikipedia’s sweeping strategy and improbable ascension to illustrate Wales’s playbook to fix much of what’s broken in today’s highly polarized and antagonistic society.
On this week’s episode of The Big Interview, Wells and I discuss what it means to build something that is used by billions of people, but isn’t ideal for growth at all costs. During our discussion, he talked about Wikipedia’s messy human origins, the ways it has been targeted by governments from Russia to Saudi Arabia, and the challenges of maintaining neutrality in an online ecosystem hostile to the idea that facts exist. We also talked about what threatens Wikipedia now, from artificial intelligence to conspiring billionaires, and why he will never edit an article about Donald Trump. Read our full conversation below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Katie Drummond: Jimmy Wales, welcome to the big interview. Thank you very much for being here.
Jimmy Wales: Thanks for having me.
We always start these conversations with a few quick questions, like a little warm-up for your brain. Are you ready?
Yes.
What internet rabbit hole have you fallen down recently?
Home helper. I’ve just started using Home Assistant to operate smart home devices, there’s a huge community and thousands of things to read about etc. So that’s what I’m obsessed with.
What does this community do?
Troubleshooting. People are developing accessories to handle all sorts of things in the world, and it’s amazing.
What’s a topic you don’t argue about online anymore?
I would like to say that I don’t argue with anyone about transgender issues. There’s no point in that at all. It is very toxic. I’ve never argued about it, but I don’t even talk about it.
You’ll just stay away.
Yes, it’s very unpleasant.
Which do you trust more: Wikipedia or ChatGPT?
Certainly Wikipedia.
I had to ask. What is your favorite website or app other than Wikipedia?
I really like parts of Reddit. There are some really great communities on Reddit, and great people. I lurk and read in a personal finance related subreddit. There are a lot of really nice people out there. I’m always amazed by that.
Reddit is really having a moment. I find that I spend a lot of time in the Reddit app on my phone, because I’d rather read thoughtful conversations than scroll on the X.
This is exactly it. It’s like a place with paragraphs.
And people are often really thoughtful. What’s the best thing about living in the UK compared to the US?
Well, my family is here. I always say this about the United States: technology in Silicon Valley, politics in Washington, movies and entertainment in Los Angeles, and finance in New York. But all these things exist in London.
So, if I lived in Silicon Valley, I would only have tech friends because that’s who lives there. Whereas in London, it’s more extensive. All kinds of people. So I like it.
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