Wikipedia halts test of AI-generated summaries at the beginning of articles after editor backlash
Wikipedia has suspended a test of displaying AI-generated summaries at the beginning of articles after receiving negative feedback from the editorial community.
Wikipedia Pauses AI-Generated Summaries After Editor Backlash
Wikipedia suffers backlash from human editors over AI summaries, prompting feature pause - Neowin
The Wikimedia Foundation , which runs Wikipedia, was planning to begin testing an AI-generated summary at the top of each Wikipedia article.
However, when the intention to conduct the test was revealed, two editors immediately responded with 'whoooaaa,' while another wrote, 'Just because Google is showing AI summaries doesn't mean we have to surpass them. Please don't do this test, on mobile or anywhere. AI summaries will do irreparable damage to our readers and to our reputation as a decent, trustworthy source of information.'
Another comment was, 'No, I don't want to add extra stuff that will be the subject of editorial discussion. It's either useless or worse than a simple summary.'
Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Simple_summaries:_editor_survey_and_2-week_mobile_study
The Wikimedia Foundation withdrew its plans the day after the announcement, after receiving negative feedback from editors.
A spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation told news site 404 Media, 'The Wikimedia Foundation has been exploring ways to make Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects more accessible to readers around the world. The two-week opt-in experiment focused on making complex Wikipedia articles easier to read for people with a range of reading levels. The summaries were generated using Cohere's open-weight Aya model. The test was intended to gauge interest in the feature and help us consider appropriate community management systems that ensure humans remain at the center of determining how information is presented on Wikipedia.'
'It's common for us to receive feedback from volunteers to inform our decisions and sometimes change course. We welcome thoughtful feedback like this one, which is what keeps Wikipedia a truly collaborative platform for human knowledge,' he said.
The Wikimedia Foundation also plans to use AI to build features that will make the work of human editors easier.
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