AI information scrapers are an existential menace to Wikipedia

Wikipedia is likely one of the biggest information assets ever assembled, containing crowdsourced contributions from hundreds of thousands of people worldwide – and it faces a rising menace from synthetic intelligence builders.

The non-profit Wikimedia Basis, which operates Wikipedia, says since January 2024 it has seen a 50 per cent improve in community site visitors requesting picture and video downloads from its catalogue. That surge largely comes from automated information scraper packages, which builders use to acquire coaching information for his or her AI fashions.…