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Wikipedia is not going anywhere, says founder Jimmy Wales as online encyclopaedia completes 25 years
Wikipedia is not going anywhere, says founder Jimmy Wales as online encyclopaedia completes 25 years Premium
In an era shaped by the information economy — where trust is fragile, AI systems generate content at scale, and facts are constantly contested — the role of open, reliable knowledge has never been more critical.
This month, Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopaedia, turned 25. Even as detractors call the platform redundant in the age of AI and large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Gemini, founder Jimmy Wales remains optimistic. “The world is better off with AI reading Wikipedia. Imagine if it trained only on X,” he told a keen audience at the recent Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode, adding that Wikipedia, too, is making use of AI tools to improve the efficiency of its edits.
Discussing his book The Seven Rules of Trust (Bloomsbury), co-authored with Dan Gardner, Mr. Wales reflects on credibility, the importance of human-curated knowledge, and why he believes the online encyclopaedia is here to stay. Edited excerpts:
Do you think there is a deficit of trust in the world today? Or misplaced trust maybe?
Well, those can be kind of the same thing in a way. I always look at the Edelman Trust Barometer survey. This is a survey that's been done since the year 2000, in many countries around the world. And they've seen a steady decline in trust, decline in trust in journalism, in politics, and so forth.
So, there is a decline in trust. But also, one of the side effects of that is, if people truly believe, for example, that all politicians are corrupt and liars, then they still have to choose someone, and so they end up with misplaced trust.
And I think that's a big problem as well.
How do you look back at 25 years of Wikipedia?
It's been really great. The thing that I've always enjoyed is that we are very community-oriented. So, I travel around, and everywhere I go, I try to meet with local Wikipedians. And they're very, very sweet nerds, who love knowledge and love researching and sharing what they've learned. So, a lot of the things that end up in the news about culture wars and politics and all of it, that's not what we are about internally. We are just about… documenting birds and trains and whatever it might be. And that's been such a wonderful journey. And it's been very good to see the response from the public, that people do love Wikipedia and they view it as one of the good things in the world. And that's very satisfying.
During elections or conflicts such as war, concerns about fake news and misinformation often arise. How does Wikipedia address these challenges?
One of the things that we think is very important is journalism. Like serious, proper journalism to get the facts. Obviously, we try to be neutral. But, where neutrality is the hardest is where emotions are very high. So we acknowledge that and we understand that. And so that's always a challenge.
And there are a lot of low-quality information sources, and there is such a thing as fake news. It hasn't impacted Wikipedia very much because we spend our lives debating the quality of our sources. It's hard to fool the Wikipedians with a fake website.
In the age of AI and LLMs, what are some of the big challenges for Wikipedia and open knowledge ecosystems in general?
One of the issues is that AI, much to everyone's surprise, is very bad at facts. I think if you asked anybody 30 years ago, what do you think the first AI that we experience would be like, they would have said it would be very matter-of-fact and very serious and it won't understand humour at all, and it won't be creative at all. It turns out, it's the exact opposite. The humour's not very good, but, it's creative and it's crazy and makes things up and so forth. But that does mean if people start to use AI assuming that it's going to be factually correct, they'll be getting errors and mistakes.
What scares you or concerns you the most about America right now?
Well, like many people, I'm worried about the decline in bipartisanship. You know, recently, we just had the longest shutdown of the government in history because the two sides weren't able to find even the most simple compromises, and that is, in part, a breakdown of trust. If you completely don't trust the other side, then you lose the ability to make a compromise.
I also worry, and I think anybody should be worried right now, about the apparent rise of authoritarianism and political violence. I think it's very scary. You know, we just saw a political assassination — of Charlie Kirk — this is a huge tragedy. Even though I didn't agree with Charlie Kirk's politics, the thing he was quite famous for is going out and discussing with people, and, you know, it's completely tragic and will be used for further violence and that cycle can be so unhealthy. I would like to see us move in a direction of more calm and have leaders who take on the responsibility of behaving respectfully to other people. I don't think Donald Trump is going to do that.
Is there a common misconception about Wikipedia among people?
It's a good question. If you read the news, you'll find that people assume that Wikipedia is some kind of ideological battleground, where we are warring factions. Actually most of the work in Wikipedia is about obscure, sweet subjects that nobody's fighting anything about, and that's really great, and so I think what people don't realise is that we're just this nerdy community with a hobby.
What's next for Wikipedia?
Well, I think the good news is that nothing is going to change radically. People like Wikipedia. We like Wikipedia as it is, so we're going to stay calm, and obviously the culture wars rage all around us, but we'll stick to what we do best.
Obviously, I think one of the things that I'm really positive and excited about is the growth of Wikipedia in the languages of the world. So here in India, we've got, well, 22 languages-plus. There's some minor dialects as well. We've got all these communities working together and working independently. To me, this is very exciting.
Jimmy Wales at the Kerala Literature Festival 2026 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The writer was at the Kerala Literature Festival 2026 on invitation from DC Books.
julie.m.v@thehindu.co.in
Published - January 26, 2026 09:03 pm IST
books and literature / authors and poets / Kerala / Kerala
Source: TheHindu
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