Wikipedia bans AI-generated articles citing accuracy and policy violations

Wikipedia has updated its editorial guidelines to ban editors from writing or rewriting articles using artificial intelligence, a policy change added to English Wikipedia's guidelines late last week. The platform cites AI's tendency to violate several of Wikipedia's core content policies and produce inaccurate content as the primary reasons for the prohibition. While the ban prevents AI from generating substantive content, Wikipedia editors may still use large language models for limited purposes such as suggesting basic copyedits that don't introduce new content or translating articles from other language versions of Wikipedia into English. The policy reflects Wikipedia's commitment to maintaining editorial accuracy and adherence to its established content standards.

Wikipedia's new ban on AI-generated content

• ▪AI-written articles tend to violate several of Wikipedia's core content policies.
• ▪Wikipedia's AI content ban was added to Wikipedia's guidelines late last week.
• ▪Wikipedia's AI content ban applies to the English version of Wikipedia.
• ▪Wikipedia will no longer allow editors to write or rewrite articles using AI.

Permitted uses of AI tools under the policy

• ▪Wikipedia editors can use large language models to suggest basic copyedits to their writing if the AI does not introduce content of its own.
• ▪Wikipedia editors can use AI to translate articles from another language's Wikipedia into English.

Perspective of Wikipedia

• ▪AI-generated content tends to produce inaccurate information that fails to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
• ▪Wikipedia permits limited AI use for copyediting and translation tasks that do not introduce new content.

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