Wikipedia and other digital public goods are at risk. Here’s what Wikimedia CH is doing about it and how you can help.
Ask a question online today and the answer was probably built on Wikipedia, without the site ever being mentioned. In 2025 alone, AI tools reading Wikipedia’s content jumped 50%, while direct human visits dropped 8%. When people get the answer but skip the source, Wikipedia loses the visits that bring recognition, new volunteer editors and financial support.
Taking without giving back
Wikipedia is one example of a much wider issue. AI tools learn from open knowledge sources: encyclopaedia articles, open-access books, photographs, artwork, code. Scholars, artists and individuals like you created and shared this work freely so that anyone could use it.
This is the “Paradox of Open”: tools built to democratise knowledge are being exploited by for-profit companies. The knowledge commons, made up of digital public goods like Wikipedia, risks becoming a “dark commons”: invisible infrastructure feeding proprietary systems, with no recognition for the people and organisations behind it.
The commercial products built on it generate substantial profits, and little of that value flows back. When human visits to Wikipedia slow down, the editors and donors who sustain it go as well, and the knowledge source AI depends on begins to disappear.
This matters because collective, open and verified human knowledge is the only ground truth we have. Wikipedia is a clear example. Volunteers built it for everyone, with no commercial interest, and people still turn to it for factual, neutral information based on transparency: who wrote what, what changed, which source backs it up.
Without sources like this, what will be left for AI tools to learn from? The likely answer is private companies running their own encyclopaedias, built with their own AI and serving their own interests.
Where do we go from here?
Resisting AI will not secure the future of Wikipedia as a common good, but shaping it might. That means building the governance, resources and tools that let free knowledge grow in an AI world. We need rules for how open content is used, a fair contribution from the companies that draw on it, and ways for volunteers to work with new technology while ensuring people— not machines— oversee what gets published.
At Wikimedia CH, we believe the knowledge commons is critical infrastructure that deserves protection. Alongside partners and like-minded organisations, we are working to help shape its future.
Support free knowledge
Wikimedia CH is a non-profit that accepts neither advertising nor government funding. We rely on donations from people who want knowledge to stay accurate, neutral and free. As fewer visits mean fewer donors and editors, that support matters more than ever!
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Your support keeps Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects alive as spaces where knowledge belongs to everyone.