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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says OpenAI's ChatGPT is currently a "mess" when used to write articles on the platform, often getting information wrong and making up sources.

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Wales called a Wikipedia article written with ChatGPT-4 "terrible" and stressed the need for accuracy and unbiased information in the online encyclopedia, which serves as a crucial source for AI training. A

According to Wales, GPT-4 "really misses out on a lot and it get things wrong, and it gets things wrong in a plausible way and it makes up sources and it's a mess."

In April, Wales sounded a bit more positive. He said that helpful AI articles were "certainly closer than I would have thought two years ago," but he was skeptical even then, saying that he saw a risk that AI could reinforce pre-existing biases on Wikipedia.

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AI could help in other ways

Despite his criticism, Wales is open to the potential role of AI in supporting Wikipedia. He is considering partnerships with open-source AI companies and exploring tools that could help identify inaccuracies in articles or use AI to evaluate Wikipedia articles for contradictions and identify information gaps by comparing Wikipedia's database with global knowledge.

Last August, Meta unveiled PEER, a collaborative language model trained on Wikipedia's editing history to reason about text changes as a writing assistant.

Previously, Meta demonstrated Side, an open-source AI model designed to review and improve Wikipedia sources. Side can automatically review hundreds of thousands of Wikipedia sources, alert editors to any that may be incorrect or irrelevant, and suggest better alternatives. There is no partnership between Meta and Wikimedia, the operator of Wikipedia.

Several other projects have already attempted to use AI to improve Wikipedia, for example as a writing assistant for updates or to write wiki biographies of ignored researchers.

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Summary
  • Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales criticized OpenAI's ChatGPT for inaccurately writing articles on the platform, saying it often gets information wrong and makes up sources.
  • Despite his concerns, Wales is open to exploring the potential role of AI in supporting Wikipedia, such as identifying inaccuracies in articles or evaluating content for contradictions and information gaps.
  • Meta has previously demonstrated AI models such as PEER and Side that can help edit and improve Wikipedia sources, but there is currently no partnership between Meta and Wikimedia, the operator of Wikipedia.
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Online journalist Matthias is the co-founder and publisher of THE DECODER. He believes that artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the relationship between humans and computers.
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