Wikipedia's Wales wants AI $ from Big Tech

Will Wikipedia remain relevant in light of AI mining its content? For a guy with a new book out and facing a host of technical and political challenges, the online encyclopedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales sure seemed sanguine when we spoke on Monday.
    
You can read my interview with him in my column this week, linked below. I also recommend our coverage of Tesla's, er, dramatic shareholder meeting last week, a special report looking at Meta revenue tied to scam ads, and new climate investments in California, all in this week's newsletter.
    
You can follow me on LinkedIn and/or Bluesky, or reach out via ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com

As co-founder of Wikipedia and a trustee of its host organization, Alabama native Jimmy Wales has guided the online encyclopedia's evolution through attacks on its accuracy and online vandalism.
    
Those crises look tame next to new challenges his baby must confront like conservative criticism of its sourcing and AI mining of its content.
  
In a recent interview, Wales seemed confident Wikipedia will remain relevant. He hopes to strike more deals modeled on one with Google to have corporations pay for training access. We also discussed the merits of anonymity and how moderation protects free speech among strangers.
    
You can learn more about Wales' views by clicking the button below for the Q&A. You'll also find a video of key parts of our conversation as I try to keep up with the cool kids vodcasting whatever they had for lunch - please let me know what you think of the new format.

And, if you want to hear from Wales directly btw you can catch him at our Reuters Next conference early next month in New York, signup link here.

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