Wikipedia’s parent organization, the Wikimedia Foundation, has issued a public call for AI developers to access its vast trove of content through its paid Wikimedia Enterprise API rather than scraping the website directly. The appeal, published Monday in a blog post, outlines how AI companies can “responsibly” use Wikipedia’s information while supporting its nonprofit mission.
The Foundation said its goal is to ensure that Wikipedia remains sustainable and that its contributors receive proper attribution for their work, even as AI tools increasingly rely on its data. “For people to trust information shared on the internet, platforms should make it clear where the information is sourced from,” the post stated, emphasizing that attribution helps maintain transparency and encourages users to visit and contribute to Wikipedia itself.
The Wikimedia Enterprise platform—first introduced as an opt-in paid product—provides structured, real-time access to Wikipedia’s data without straining its servers. The Foundation said that by paying for this access, AI companies can use its content at scale while financially supporting the open-knowledge ecosystem that underpins Wikipedia’s operation.
While the statement stops short of threatening legal action, it comes amid growing concern over AI bots scraping Wikipedia without permission. The organization recently reported that its spike in traffic during May and June was caused by automated AI crawlers disguising themselves as human visitors. Following updates to its bot-detection systems, Wikipedia discovered that “human page views” had dropped 8% year-over-year, underscoring how automated data collection can distort its analytics and reduce organic engagement.
The Foundation warned that falling user engagement could have broader consequences. With fewer visits, there may be fewer volunteer editors contributing content and fewer individual donors supporting the platform financially—both critical to its long-term sustainability.
In addition to its message to AI developers, the Wikimedia Foundation reiterated its own AI strategy for editors, which focuses on using artificial intelligence to assist, not replace, human contributors. The plan includes automating translation, streamlining repetitive editing tasks, and improving workflows while keeping human oversight central to Wikipedia’s editorial process.
The Foundation’s appeal adds to a growing industry debate over how AI companies source their training data. By directing developers toward its official API, Wikipedia aims to ensure that its content is used transparently, ethically, and in a way that sustains the volunteer-driven model that has made it one of the internet’s most trusted information resources.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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