Wikipedia is cracking down on the use of artificial intelligence in writing articles

With the success of artificial intelligence in the world of editorial and media, websites are scrambling to establish ground rules for its use. Wikipedia this week banned its editors from using AI-generated text, though it stopped short of completely banning AI from the site’s editorial operations.

In a recent policy change, the site now states that “using LLMs to create or rewrite article content is prohibited.” This new language updates and clarifies previous, more ambiguous language that stated that LLMs should not be used to create new Wikipedia articles from scratch.

Wikipedia’s artificial intelligence articles have become a controversial issue among the site’s sprawling and volunteer community of editors. 404 Media reports that the new policy, which was put to a vote by the site’s editors, received majority support — 40 to 2.

However, the new policy still makes room for the continued use of artificial intelligence in some editorial processes.

“Editors are permitted to use LLM credits to suggest substantive edits to their writing, and to incorporate some after human review, provided the LLM does not submit its own content,” the new policy states. “Caution is required, because LLMs can go beyond what you ask of them and change the meaning of the text so that it is no longer supported by the sources cited.”