Wikipedia at 25: Can the Human-Powered Encyclopedia Survive AI's Appetite for Free Data?

Wikipedia’s 25th birthday reveals a paradox: the same content that fuels AI revolutions now threatens to render its human editors obsolete. Since 2022, the site has lost over 1 billion monthly visits as users increasingly access its data through AI chatbots, while volunteer editor registrations have plummeted 33% since 2016.

Gen Z contributors like Hannah Clover describe economic precarity as a barrier to unpaid labor: “A lot of us are just trying to pay our rent and do our best to live through a cost-of-living crisis.”

Wikimedia CEO Bernadette Meehan acknowledges the shifting landscape: “The diplomacy and negotiation skills are things that I think will lend well to the current environment.”

Yet the organization faces a fundamental tension between its non-commercial ethos and the profit-driven models of AI firms that train on its freely licensed content without financial reciprocity.

A 2010 FBI demand to remove Wikipedia’s logo—successfully contested by the foundation—now feels quaint compared to the existential threat of AI’s data hunger.

Short-form video initiatives have generated 23 million views since 2025, but this has not translated into new editors.

Meanwhile, political right-wing figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson have shifted Wikimedia’s approach from legal defiance to conciliation over accusations of liberal bias.

The result is a fractured ecosystem where Wikipedia’s open knowledge infrastructure sustains AI innovation while its human contributors face dwindling incentives.