this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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[–] infeeeee@lemmy.zip 193 points 22 hours ago (7 children)

Saved you a click:

After much debate, the new policy is in effect: Wikipedia authors are not allowed to use LLMs for generating or rewriting article content. There are two primary exceptions, though.

First, editors can use LLMs to suggest refinements to their own writing, as long as the edits are checked for accuracy. In other words, it’s being treated like any other grammar checker or writing assistance tool. The policy says, “ LLMs can go beyond what you ask of them and change the meaning of the text such that it is not supported by the sources cited.”

The second exemption for LLMs is with translation assistance. Editors can use AI tools for the first pass at translating text, but they still need to be fluent enough in both languages to catch errors. As with regular writing refinements, anyone using LLMs also has to check that incorrect information hasn’t been injected.

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 hours ago

To save you another few clicks: this is the discussion (RfC) that implemented the changes, and the policy is linked at the top.

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 130 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

AIbros: we're creating God!!!

AI users: it can do translation & reformating pretty well but you got to check it's not chatting shit

[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 45 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The takeaway from all LLM-based AI is the user needs to be smart enough to do whatever they're asking anyway. All output needs to be verified before being used or relied upon.

The "AI" is just streamlining the process to save time.

Relying on it otherwise is stupid and just proves instantly that you are incompetent.

[–] Zagorath@quokk.au 0 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

the user needs to be smart enough to do whatever they're asking anyway

I'm gonna say that's ideal but not quite necessary. What's needed is that the user is capable of properly verifying the output. Which anyone who could do it themselves definitely can, but it can be done more broadly. It's an easier skill to verify a result than it is to obtain that result. Think: how film critics don't necessarily need to be filmmakers, or the P=NP question in computer science.

[–] Pyro@programming.dev 5 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

But if the output has issues, what're you going to do, prompt it again? If you are only able to verify but not do the task, you cannot correct the AI's mistakes yourself.

[–] Zagorath@quokk.au 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

At the risk of sounding like an overly obsequious AI… You know what, you're completely right. I'm honestly not sure what use case I was imagining when I wrote that last comment.

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com 3 points 14 hours ago

Making text flow naturally, grouping and ordeeing information, good writing.

You can verify two textst have the same facts and information, yet one reads way better than the other. But writing a text that reads well is quite hard.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

I can't draw, but I could probably photoshop out some minor issues in an AI-generated image.

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com -1 points 14 hours ago

If you don't habe the ability then you would do what you would have 5 years ago: not do it
Either submit without, or not submit at all.

[–] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Fucking hate those anti human filth pushing slop into everything. I want to take one apart with power tools.

[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 10 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Damn that movie was funny. I need to rewatch it.

[–] onlyhalfminotaur@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago

It holds up better than any movie from the late 90s that I can think of.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 19 hours ago

I don't think AI users would say it does reformatting either (if they're honest): If you tell a chatbot to reformat text without changing it, it will change the text, because it does not understand the concept of not changing text. It should only take one time for someone to get burned for them to learn that lesson.

Seems pretty reasonable to use it as a grammar checker. As long as it's not changing content, just form or readability, that seems like a pretty decent use for it, at least with a purely educational resource like Wikipedia.

[–] ji59@hilariouschaos.com 13 points 22 hours ago

So, it should be used reasonably, as it should have always been.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago

Liar. I already read the article before opening the comments. YOU SAVED ME NOTHING.

;-)

[–] errer@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Wikipedia probably wants to sell access to LLMs to train. It’s only valuable if Wikipedia remains a high-quality, slop-free source.

I think even AI zealots think there should be silos of content to train from that are fully human generated. Training slop on slop makes the slop even worse.

[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 12 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Sell licenses of what? It's already all in the creative commons iirc.

[–] Zagorath@quokk.au 3 points 16 hours ago

The content is CC licensed, but they are trying to block AI scraping because it overloads their servers. They have a paid API that uses a lot less compute for both Wikipedia and the AI, as well as being a revenue source for Wikipedia.

[–] SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

AI already trains on Wikipedia.

https://commoncrawl.org/

[–] MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com 5 points 19 hours ago

This was only done because the editors pushed to minimize AI involvement. There's a comment here already mentioning that: https://lemmy.world/comment/22826863

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 0 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Seems like there should be a third exception. For those occasions where the article is about LLM generated text. They should be able to quote it when it's appropriate for an article.

[–] Zagorath@quokk.au 3 points 16 hours ago

That is a reasonable exception to no-AI policies in research papers and newspaper articles, but not for Wikipedia. As a tertiary source, Wikipedia has a strict "no original research" policy. Using AI to provide examples of AI output would be original research, and should not be done.

Quoting AI output shared in primary and secondary sources should be allowed for that reason, though.