As someone who uses Wikipedia multiple times each day to check out author biographies vis-a-vis their own personal author websites, their publisher's websites, their faculty web pages, et al., one additional point that's worth making is that Google isn't just using Wikipedia to train its Gemini AI and other Search Labs products. It's also downgrading Wikipedia entries in its search results. If I google a given poet or writer's name now, that person's Wikipedia article is seldom found in the first page of search results any longer. Sometimes it isn't even on the second page. Often I have to enter that person's name and Wikipedia in to the search box to find the article. Up until relatively recently, an author's Wikipedia article always popped up in the first five search results without fail.
That reinforces Harrison's point about Wikipedia now entering its "existential threat phase" with respect to AI.
Yes to this. As someone who plays a lot in the search space, the change in SERPs that now favor Google partners like Reddit, sponsored content and generative search has been nothing less than paradigm shifting. (Though recent reports indicate a move back to a more traditional results approach in terms of content as well as things like ranked pagination.)
Are we now at a point where Wikipedia becomes the oracle and Google devolves to be the untrustworthy priests?
Congratulations. Your interview has made it to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_has_more... a very short essay about the many claims that popular culture outweighs serious academic coverage on Wikipedia, with a long list of example claims, mostly false.
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Excellent interview, Caitlin!
As someone who uses Wikipedia multiple times each day to check out author biographies vis-a-vis their own personal author websites, their publisher's websites, their faculty web pages, et al., one additional point that's worth making is that Google isn't just using Wikipedia to train its Gemini AI and other Search Labs products. It's also downgrading Wikipedia entries in its search results. If I google a given poet or writer's name now, that person's Wikipedia article is seldom found in the first page of search results any longer. Sometimes it isn't even on the second page. Often I have to enter that person's name and Wikipedia in to the search box to find the article. Up until relatively recently, an author's Wikipedia article always popped up in the first five search results without fail.
That reinforces Harrison's point about Wikipedia now entering its "existential threat phase" with respect to AI.
Yes to this. As someone who plays a lot in the search space, the change in SERPs that now favor Google partners like Reddit, sponsored content and generative search has been nothing less than paradigm shifting. (Though recent reports indicate a move back to a more traditional results approach in terms of content as well as things like ranked pagination.)
Are we now at a point where Wikipedia becomes the oracle and Google devolves to be the untrustworthy priests?
Sounds excellent, pre-ordered!
Congratulations. Your interview has made it to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_has_more... a very short essay about the many claims that popular culture outweighs serious academic coverage on Wikipedia, with a long list of example claims, mostly false.
Thanks very much for flagging, Richard. (And for adding it to the essay. 😉) I'll update this post to clarify that Stephen was speaking hyperbolically.