The Digital Press

Wikipedia has detected a surge in bot traffic scraping its pages, mostly from AI companies using its content covertly, causing a decline in real human visitors.

Why it matters: Reduced human visits threaten Wikipedia’s volunteer contributions and donations, risking its sustainability as a free knowledge resource.

The big picture: AI platforms rely heavily on Wikipedia data but funnel users away by summarizing content instead of directing them to Wikipedia.

The stakes: Wikipedia faces a potential “death spiral” if AI-driven traffic cannibalizes its audience, undermining its community-driven model.

Commenters say: Users question why AI firms scrape pages instead of using Wikipedia’s database directly and debate whether AI companies should financially support Wikipedia.