Wikipedia. For many, the last haven of hard facts on the Internet systematically flooded with toxic social media and AI spam. This marina has just been hit hard. Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation reports an 8% year-over-year decline in human views. And no, it’s not a coincidence.
After updating bot detection systems, it turned out that a significant part of the “exceptionally high” traffic in May and June were clever bots that had learned to bypass security measures. Is this confirmation of the Dead Internet Theory?
Wikipedia is slowly collapsing – the reason? A familiar duo
Miller directly points to generative AI and social media as the main causes of user outflow. Search engines increasingly provide answers directly – why click on a link to Wikipedia if Google AI will spit out a ready-made answer for you? This is especially visible in the new Google AI Mode, which quickly searches the web and spits out a complete answer to a given issue – these are no longer the times when Googling took a few quarters of an hour.
The second culprit of poor views on Wikipedia are young generations who prefer to seek knowledge on TikTok and other video platforms rather than on the “open web”. This is mainly related to the change in the way we use the Internet – the movement of young generations (mainly Z-girls) has moved to social media, where they spend most of their time,
The paradox of success without merit
The Wikimedia Foundation officially applauds “new ways of gaining knowledge.” Miller argues that Wikipedia is not losing its importance – its content still reaches people, just through different channels. The encyclopedia itself experimented with AI summaries, although the project was suspended after editors’ protests.
But there’s a catch. Fewer visits mean fewer volunteers enriching the content and fewer donors supporting the project. And from this it is a direct path to the decreasing importance of the entire portal. It is worth adding that Elon Musk recently clearly threw down the Wikipedia gauntlet and announced the launch of Grokipedia, the AI equivalent of the knowledge portal known by every millennial and above.
Time to check your sources
Miller appeals to AI companies, search engines and social media that use Wikipedia: direct users to the original source. Wikimedia is already working on a content attribution system and recruiting volunteers for teams to reach new readers.
His advice to regular users? Check citations, click on original sources and talk to your loved ones about the value of verified human knowledge. Because there are real people behind this AI content and they deserve support.
