Wikipedia’s parent organization, the Wikimedia Foundation, urged AI developers to stop scraping its website and instead use its paid Wikimedia Enterprise API to access content responsibly. The foundation said this approach would prevent strain on its servers, ensure proper attribution to human contributors, and help sustain its nonprofit mission. It revealed that much of its recent traffic surge came from AI bots disguising themselves as humans, while genuine human visits fell 8% year over year. The foundation warned that declining engagement could harm volunteer contributions and donations. It also reiterated that its own AI use focuses on supporting editors through automation, not replacing them.
