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Wikipedia is one of the last genuine places on the Internet, and these rat bastards are trying to contaminate that, too
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Fuck AI
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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Wikipedia just sold the rights to use Wikipedia for AI training to Microsoft and openai....
It's getting scraped anyway. So why not get some money from it?
Imo this. Selling access also implies its illegal to access without purchasing rights which imho helps undermine AI's only monetary advantage
They lose the right to sue them
They probably realized that it was a losing battle and they didn't want to pay legal fees.
Suing an ai company with the orange dipshit in office? Good luck...
Wouldn't it give them more rights? Before, anyone could scrape it and claim "Wikipedia's public, so it's fair game", but now Wikipedia can say "no, you must licence the content, as did OpenAI and Microsoft." That could give more protection against other AI companies scraping it for their models, wouldn't it?
This right here is the reason why companies that started out with good quality/intentions turn into companies with crappy mediocre products that now actually contribute to the opposite effect on the world than everything they once stood for.
How exactly does that work? Wikipedia does not "own" the content on the website, it's all CC-BY licensed.
The BY term is not respected by LLMs
So? Still doesn't make sense to me that wikipedia can sell anything meaningful here, but I'm also not a lawyer. Do they promise not to sue them or sell them some guarantee that contributors also can't sue them? Is it just some symbolic PR washing?
Yeah, they're selling the work of others. That's how the site always worked. This venture into "AI" is nothing new.
Why? Wikipedia has like a decade of operating expenses on hand, so they don't need the money
This number inflates every time I read it. First it was ten years of hosting cost. Then it's operating costs. Soon it will be ten years of the entire US GDP.
I'd believe they have ten years of hosting costs on hand.
My quick googling says they have 170m in assets and all 180m in annual operating costs. Give or take.
I just love how people just shit "facts" out of their ass while citing zero sources and people will just believe them and upvote because it confirms their bias.
Greed? It’s probably greed.
OK then why sell data right to m$?
They keep saying that... at least when they're asking for more money.
Is wiki in the red? Unclear, omi mean they ask for money donations, but someone in this thread claims they are set for a decade, I’ve seen people post something about how they are fine, and even donate a bunch themselves. I don’t know, and I guess it doesn’t matter.
Not sure where you are going with your second comment, and uninterested in engaging with your comparison as I don’t think it’s very good
On the trading front, other than donations, if they don’t show ads, isn’t more traffic just more cost? So, I guess if copilot instead just shows info without the user going to wiki that might be good in a sense? But if they drove more traffic there, not so much? Unless they are donating….
I mean, I guess it’s better than ahem…. Grok with its fictitious information, but, I don’t think this of the ai_lovers community either…
You for maybe have an argument that at least the ai will be fed dates with some basis in reality, which could be good.
Many conflicting feelings
I mean you’re right, it doesn’t, but it does feel a bit bad considering all that data is mostly the work of volunteers, who now get the intense privilege of becoming AI feed.
I hate this derivative AI slop fest we are driving towards, so I guess I’m a little sensitive to news like this.
If microsoft is "buying access to training data" it makes what Open AI is doing look illegal. I would encourage every data broker to sell 'AI training data rights" because it undermines the only real advantage AI has and it helps pave the way to forcing AI companies to comply with open source licenses.
Essentially selling ai data rights is a trojan horse for the AI companies. Obviously it would be better to pass laws but until that happens this is imo a better strategy than doing nothing.
I mean, what open ai is doing and did should be illegal if it’s not, in my opinion.
I mean it's free money, why not?