Wikipedia's English-language edition has officially banned AI-generated content. Volunteer editors voted 40 to 2 in favor of a new policy that prohibits using large language models (LLMs) to create or rewrite articles on the platform.
The policy is blunt: "The use of LLMs to generate or rewrite article content is prohibited." This replaces earlier, softer guidance that merely discouraged generating articles from scratch. The tighter language reflects growing frustration among editors who've spent increasing amounts of time flagging and removing AI-written submissions that violate Wikipedia's core content policies around verifiability and neutral point of view.
Two narrow exceptions survived the vote. Editors can still use AI tools to suggest basic copy edits to their own writing, provided they review every change and the AI doesn't introduce new content. Translation is also permitted - editors can use LLMs to translate articles from other language Wikipedias into English, following specific guidelines for LLM-assisted translation.
The ban applies only to the English Wikipedia. Each language version sets its own rules, though Spanish Wikipedia has already implemented a similar prohibition without the translation exception.
This is the clearest line any major platform has drawn against AI-generated text. Wikipedia's decision carries outsized weight because it supplies training data for most AI models in the first place. A flood of AI-written Wikipedia articles would create a feedback loop - models trained on AI-generated encyclopedia entries, producing more AI-generated encyclopedia entries. The editors clearly see that as an existential threat to the project's credibility, and 40-2 suggests the consensus wasn't even close.