Roger-Luc Chayer (Image : Wikipedia)
Wikipedia Extends Its Fundraising Campaign: A Wake-Up Call for the Free Encyclopedia
Wikipedia has launched a fundraising campaign this year that is longer than usual, with exceptional circumstances forcing the organization to intensify donation appeals in order to increase its financial resources. The message displayed at the top of each page, directly within search results, was urgent and unambiguous. It reminded readers that Wikipedia is a free service, without advertising, relying almost entirely on reader generosity, while only 2% of users contribute financially. With more than 60 million articles in multiple languages, the organization presents itself as the largest free educational resource ever created, while emphasizing that hosting, maintenance, and long-term sustainability come at a real cost, both today and for future generations.
A Model Undermined by the Humans Behind the Content
While the institutional narrative aims to reassure and mobilize, it nonetheless conceals deeper structural weaknesses. Two major factors now threaten Wikipedia’s knowledge dissemination model: the central role played by humans behind the content and the direct competition from artificial intelligence. Long before the rise of AI, Wikipedia was already grappling with recurring issues of credibility, information manipulation, and in some cases, defamation. Numerous accounts, including my own, point to serious and false statements remaining on the pages of public figures, sometimes for extended periods, due to ignorance, inertia, or procedural rigidity on the part of certain administrators.
Not so long ago, when individuals discovered defamatory information about themselves and requested its removal, they were often told that a court order was required. By adopting such a stance, Wikipedia effectively placed itself in the role of judge and jury, granting a form of legitimacy to unverified claims simply because they were published, at the expense of the right to reputation and factual truth.
Loss of Popularity and Growing Public Fatigue
This dynamic has contributed to growing public fatigue toward a model perceived as opaque, dogmatic, and difficult to challenge. The complexity of internal rules, the concentration of editorial power in the hands of a small group of experienced contributors, and the slow pace of correction mechanisms have gradually driven away both readers and new collaborators. In a digital environment where information is expected to be fast, contextualized, and interactive, Wikipedia increasingly appears as a rigid tool, exposed to ideological conflicts and misaligned with current expectations.
Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping Information Consumption
At the same time, the evolution of digital usage patterns has profoundly altered access to information. Search engines, particularly Google, now display synthetic answers directly on their results pages, often drawn from Wikipedia, reducing direct traffic to the site and creating the impression of declining popularity, even as the content continues to be widely used indirectly. The rise of generative artificial intelligence and conversational assistants has further accelerated this shift by offering responses perceived as faster, clearer, and more personalized than traditional encyclopedic articles.
In this context, and speaking for myself, AI tools often appear more neutral than Wikipedia, particularly when addressing issues related to homosexuality. Where platforms such as ChatGPT present facts in a direct and contextualized manner, Wikipedia sometimes reflects the opinions, biases, or ideological orientations of its contributors. This is largely why Wikipedia now appears, to a growing number of users, as an outdated tool—less relevant and at times less accurate in the answers it provides.
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