Wikimedia Foundation Celebrates 25th Birthday with New AI Tech Partnerships
As part of its 25th birthday celebration, the Wikimedia Foundation announced a series of new partnerships with AI tech companies that are now customers of its commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. Developed by the foundation, Wikimedia Enterprise allows large-scale reuse and distribution of Wikipedia content, as well as content from other Wikimedia projects.
In addition to the previously announced partnership with Google in 2022, the organization shared publicly for the first time that it has formed other partnerships with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, and Perplexity over the past year. Other partnerships, like Ecosia, Pleias, and ProRata, have been mentioned before but are also included in this announcement, along with Nomic and Reef Media.
These deals give Wikipedia another way to sustain itself in an age where much of its content is being picked up and reused by AI models and other technology products and services to provide quick, factual answers to consumers’ queries. As an enterprise product, Wikimedia Enterprise isn’t just about getting tech companies to pay for their use; it also provides them access to Wikimedia projects at a volume and speed designed to meet their data needs.
The foundation also noted in a blog post that Wikipedia today is among the top 10 most-visited websites globally, where audiences view more than 65 million articles in over 300 languages, nearly 15 billion times per month.
“Wikipedia shows that knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans. Especially now, in the age of AI, we need the human-powered knowledge of Wikipedia more than ever,” noted Wikimedia Foundation’s CPO/CTO, Selena Deckelmann, in a statement. “With continued help from readers, volunteer editors, donors, partners, and fans across the globe, Wikipedia will remain the crucial hub for human-powered knowledge and collaboration online for the next 25 years and beyond.”
In addition to the tech deals announcement, the foundation launched a birthday campaign, which includes a new video docuseries offering a behind-the-scenes look at Wikipedia volunteers around the world. It also launched a “25 Years of Wikipedia” time capsule to explore the site’s past, present, and future, with some narration provided by founder Jimmy Wales. The organization will celebrate a livestreamed birthday event as well, on January 15, at 4:00 p.m. UTC, with guests, games, and entertainment. The event can be found on Wikipedia’s YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram channels.
The organization’s birthday announcements additionally highlighted other recent advances, like upgrades to its tech infrastructure, its own approach to AI, new experiments like games and short-form video, and more.
