Wikimedia Faces Mounting Strain from AI Crawlers as Bandwidth Usage Soars 50%
- Wikimedia faces rising costs because AI models are scraping its content.
- Generative AI took off, and bots scrape sites to train AI models.
- Since January 2024, multimedia downloads have increased Wikimedia's bandwidth use by 50%.
- The Wikimedia Foundation stated, "Our content is free, our infrastructure is not."
- Wikimedia is developing a plan to address unsustainable network strain from AI scrapers.
46 Articles
46 Articles


AI data scrapers are an existential threat to Wikipedia
As AI developers harvest Wikipedia content to train their models, the resulting surge in automated traffic is driving up costs for the non-profit that runs the popular crowdsourced encyclopaedia

Wikimedia must remove India content deemed defamatory, court rules
NEW DELHI - The operator of Wikipedia has been ordered to remove statements deemed defamatory by an Indian court from the page of a domestic news agency it hosts, the latest such directive to the popular online encyclopedia. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Wikipedia servers are struggling under pressure from AI scraping bots
The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization hosting Wikipedia and other widely popular websites, is raising concerns about AI scraper bots and their impact on the foundation's internet bandwidth. Demand for content hosted on Wikimedia servers has grown significantly since the beginning of 2024, with AI companies actively consuming an overwhelming...Read Entire Article
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