Wikimedia's CEO warns of ai's impact on wikipedia's traffic and funding

Wikimedia Foundation CEO Bernadette Meehan warned that Wikipedia is experiencing a decline in traffic due to the rise of AI-driven information retrieval. Page views fell 8% in 2025, according to Meehan, who spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative's Annual Meeting last week. She emphasized that while the drop was anticipated, it raises concerns about the sustainability of the platform. Meehan highlighted that AI models are increasingly providing Wikipedia-derived information without requiring users to visit the site, which threatens the ecosystem that supports the encyclopedia. She also noted that some companies are not willing to pay for access to Wikipedia's content, despite its importance for AI training. Meehan stressed the need for AI to assist human editors rather than replace them, ensuring the continued viability of the platform. The CEO pointed out that Wikipedia's freely available content creates an economic tension, as AI companies are not compelled to pay for its use. Meehan warned that if commercially developed AI becomes the primary gateway to knowledge, it could exclude certain voices and perspectives. She concluded that while Wikipedia has become indispensable to AI, its next challenge is to protect the human and financial infrastructure that made it so valuable in the first place.