Wikipedia stops AI-generated summary features after community says it can harm trust: ‘This would do immediate and irreversible…'
The Wikimedia Foundation has paused its trial of AI-generated article summaries on Wikipedia following sharp criticism from the community of volunteer editors, says a 404Media report.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The experiment, which began earlier this month, aimed to show short, machine-generated summaries at the top of Wikipedia articles on mobile. However, it faced immediate and overwhelming backlash. The report quotes one editor who said, 'Just because Google has rolled out its AI summaries doesn't mean we need to one-up them… This would do immediate and irreversible harm to our readers and to our reputation as a decently trustworthy and serious source.'
Another simply wrote, 'Yuck.'
Wikipedia's Simple Article Summaries faces backlash
The summaries, created using the Aya model from Cohere, appeared at the top of articles for users who opted in via a browser extension. These summaries were hidden by default, marked with a yellow 'unverified' label, and had to be expanded to read. The feature was called 'Simple Article Summaries' and was designed to make dense Wikipedia content easier to understand.
But editors were quick to argue that this approach undermined the core values of Wikipedia.
One said, 'With Simple Article Summaries, you propose giving one singular editor with known reliability and NPOV issues a platform at the very top of any given article… I don't think I would feel comfortable contributing to an encyclopedia like this.'
Wikipedia responds to backlash
In response to the backlash, Wikimedia announced it would pause the experiment. A spokesperson explained that the trial was an opt-in test to help make Wikipedia more accessible, particularly for readers with different reading levels.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
'It was meant to gauge interest… and help us think about the right kind of community moderation systems to ensure humans remain central to deciding what information is shown,' the spokesperson said as quoted in the report.
The Foundation also acknowledged that the communication around the project could have been better. 'Reading through the comments, it's clear we could have done a better job introducing this idea,' a project manager said.
'We need to figure out how we can experiment in safe ways that are appropriate for readers and the Wikimedia community.'
While the AI summaries have been put on hold for now, Wikimedia says it remains interested in exploring AI tools — but with full involvement from editors. 'We do not have any plans for bringing a summary feature to the wikis without editor involvement,' the project manager added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
AMD turns to AI startups to inform chip, software design
By Max A. Cherney SAN JOSE: Advanced Micro Devices has forged close ties to a batch of artificial intelligence startups as part of the company's effort to bolster its software and forge superior chip designs. As AI companies seek alternatives to Nvidia's chips, AMD has begun to expand its plans to build a viable competing line of hardware, acquiring companies such as server maker ZT Systems in its quest to achieve that goal. But to build a successful line of chips also requires a powerful set of software to efficiently run the programs built by AI developers. AMD has acquired several small software companies in recent weeks in a bid to boost its talent, and it has been working to beef up its set of software, broadly known as ROCm. "This will be a very thoughtful, deliberate, multi-generational journey for us ," said Vamsi Boppana, senior vice president of AI at AMD. AMD has committed to improve its ROCm and other software, which is a boon to customers such as AI enterprise startup Cohere, as it results in speedy changes and the addition of new features. Cohere is focused on building AI models that are tailored for large businesses versus the foundational AI models that companies like OpenAI and others target. AMD has made important strides in improving its software, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said in an interview with Reuters. Changing Cohere's software to run on AMD chips was a process that previously took weeks and now happens in only "days," Gomez said. Gomez declined to disclose exactly how much of Cohere's software relies on AMD chips but called it a "meaningful segment of our compute base" around the world. OPENAI INFLUENCE OpenAI has had significant influence on the design of the forthcoming MI450 series of AI chips, said Forrest Norrod, an executive vice president at AMD. AMD's MI400 series of chips will be the basis for a new server called "Helios" that the company plans to release next year. Nvidia too has engineered whole servers in part because AI computations require hundreds or thousands of chips strung together. OpenAI's Sam Altman appeared on stage at AMD's Thursday event in San Jose, and discussed the partnership between the two companies in broad terms. Norrod said that OpenAI's requests had a big influence on how AMD designed the MI450 series memory architecture and how the hardware can scale up to thousands of chips necessary to build and run AI applications. The ChatGPT creator also influenced what kinds of mathematical operations the chips are optimized for. "(OpenAI) has given us a lot of feedback that, I think, heavily informed our design," Norrod said.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Wikipedia stops AI-generated summary features after community says it can harm trust: ‘This would do immediate and irreversible…'
The Wikimedia Foundation has paused its trial of AI-generated article summaries on Wikipedia following sharp criticism from the community of volunteer editors, says a 404Media report. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The experiment, which began earlier this month, aimed to show short, machine-generated summaries at the top of Wikipedia articles on mobile. However, it faced immediate and overwhelming backlash. The report quotes one editor who said, 'Just because Google has rolled out its AI summaries doesn't mean we need to one-up them… This would do immediate and irreversible harm to our readers and to our reputation as a decently trustworthy and serious source.' Another simply wrote, 'Yuck.' Wikipedia's Simple Article Summaries faces backlash The summaries, created using the Aya model from Cohere, appeared at the top of articles for users who opted in via a browser extension. These summaries were hidden by default, marked with a yellow 'unverified' label, and had to be expanded to read. The feature was called 'Simple Article Summaries' and was designed to make dense Wikipedia content easier to understand. But editors were quick to argue that this approach undermined the core values of Wikipedia. One said, 'With Simple Article Summaries, you propose giving one singular editor with known reliability and NPOV issues a platform at the very top of any given article… I don't think I would feel comfortable contributing to an encyclopedia like this.' Wikipedia responds to backlash In response to the backlash, Wikimedia announced it would pause the experiment. A spokesperson explained that the trial was an opt-in test to help make Wikipedia more accessible, particularly for readers with different reading levels. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'It was meant to gauge interest… and help us think about the right kind of community moderation systems to ensure humans remain central to deciding what information is shown,' the spokesperson said as quoted in the report. The Foundation also acknowledged that the communication around the project could have been better. 'Reading through the comments, it's clear we could have done a better job introducing this idea,' a project manager said. 'We need to figure out how we can experiment in safe ways that are appropriate for readers and the Wikimedia community.' While the AI summaries have been put on hold for now, Wikimedia says it remains interested in exploring AI tools — but with full involvement from editors. 'We do not have any plans for bringing a summary feature to the wikis without editor involvement,' the project manager added.
India Today
2 days ago
- India Today
The US government is building its own AI chatbot with help from a former Tesla engineer
The United States government is preparing to launch its own AI chatbot and integration platform on July 4 under the name according to a report by 404 Media, which found a related code posted on GitHub. The initiative, which aims to 'accelerate government innovation with AI,' is being developed by the General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services (TTS), headed by Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer. The project includes a website, a chatbot, and an application programming interface (API) that will allow government agencies to tap into AI models developed by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and eventually Amazon Web Services' Bedrock and Meta's LLaMA, according to code and early website drafts uncovered by 404 early version of the homepage, which currently redirects to reportedly advertises: 'Three powerful AI tools. One integrated platform.' These include the AI assistant chatbot, a model-agnostic API, and a console to monitor how government teams are using AI. The system will also feature analytics showing usage levels across various Shedd has been at the forefront of the US government's growing interest in artificial intelligence. According to leaked internal meetings and previous public remarks reported by 404 Media and Wired, Shedd wants to 'AI-ify' large parts of federal operations. 'We want to start implementing more AI at the agency level and be an example for how other agencies can start leveraging AI,' Shedd reportedly told his team. He added that tools like AI coding agents – which would write software for federal use – and contract analysis systems are among the first products in development. The broader goal, according to Shedd, is to build centralised AI solutions that federal agencies will eventually be expected to platform appears to be a continuation of ideas proposed under the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a short-lived government initiative that was led by Elon Musk recently distanced himself from the Trump administration following a falling out, the influence of DOGE is still evident in current federal tech projects. During its existence, DOGE aimed to reduce bureaucracy and costs by replacing some federal roles with AI-driven it will workWhile the exact functionality of the AI chatbot has not yet been detailed, the underlying API will allow agencies to access a range of AI models and services through a single platform. According to GitHub documentation, integration is being tested on and the platform is still in a staging environment as of early analytics console, also part of the package, will reportedly give visibility into AI usage at each agency. This could potentially help identify which teams are adopting AI effectively, and which may require additional support or training. According to the report, the early version of the platform does not appear to use generic placeholder text, suggesting development is well underway and being tailored for specific government use cases. Tune In
