{"id":408539,"date":"2025-10-19T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T09:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wikipedia-traffic-drops-as-ai-answers-eat-the-free-encyclopedia-crypto-news\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T14:57:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T09:27:41","slug":"wikipedia-traffic-drops-as-ai-answers-eat-the-free-encyclopedia-crypto-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wikipedia-traffic-drops-as-ai-answers-eat-the-free-encyclopedia-crypto-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia Traffic Drops as AI Answers Eat the Free Encyclopedia &#8211; Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;overflow:visible;font-size:1.2em;line-height:1.58\">\n<div class=\"pt-8 pb-10 border-t border-b border-decryptGridline \">\n<h4 class=\"sc-b2a202e4-4 bNRGqr gg-dark:text-white\" color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"font-meta-serif-pro font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">Human visits to Wikipedia fell 8% year-over-year, with Wikipedia attributing it to people visiting AI summaries instead of consulting Wikipedia.<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-meta-serif-pro font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">AI summaries and search engines now answer questions outright, with nearly 60% of Google queries ending in on-page responses powered by Wikipedia content.<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-meta-serif-pro font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">Publishers call the trend &#8220;existential,&#8221; accusing tech platforms of using their work without compensation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">>>>>  gd2md-html alert:  inline image link in generated source and store images to your server. NOTE: Images in exported zip file from Google Docs may not appear in  the same order as they do in your doc. Please check the images!<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">&#8212;&#8211;><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">The Wikimedia Foundation <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/diff.wikimedia.org\/2025\/10\/17\/new-user-trends-on-wikipedia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\">announced this week<\/a> that human traffic to Wikipedia fell roughly 8% between May and August compared to the same period last year. The decline came into focus after the foundation discovered that sophisticated bots, primarily from Brazil, had been disguising themselves as human visitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">After updating its detection systems in May, the foundation reclassified traffic data and found much of the unusually high traffic in May and June came from bots built to evade detection. The revised numbers revealed what many in publishing already knew: fewer people visit Wikipedia directly because search engines now provide answers on their own pages.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"w-full max-w-full mt-4 overflow-hidden\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">\u201cAfter making this revision, we are seeing declines in human pageviews on Wikipedia over the past few months, amounting to a decrease of roughly 8% as compared to the same months in 2024,\u201d Marshall Miller, wrote. \u201cWe believe that these declines reflect the impact of generative AI and social media on how people seek information, especially with search engines providing answers directly to searchers, often based on Wikipedia content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">AI is not just killing Wikipedia. Data from <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2025\/07\/22\/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\">Pew Research<\/a> showed median year-over-year referral traffic from Google Search to premium publishers has decreased almost every week during May and June 2025, with losses outpacing gains two-to-one. Nearly 60% of all Google searches end up in an AI summary instead of promoting the reading of the actual source.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"w-full max-w-full mt-4 overflow-hidden\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"728\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"object-contain object-center w-full\" style=\"color:transparent\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 640px) 950px, 384px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:16:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 16w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:32:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 32w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:48:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 48w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:64:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 64w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:96:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 96w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:128:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 128w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:256:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 256w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:384:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 384w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:640:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 640w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:750:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 750w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:828:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 828w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:1080:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 1080w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:1200:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 1200w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:1920:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 1920w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:2048:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 2048w, https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:3840:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp 3840w\" src=\"https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:3840:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SR_25.07.22_ai_summaries_1.jpg@webp\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">Publishers across industries are sounding alarms and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pressgazette.co.uk\/platforms\/news-publisher-ai-deals-lawsuits-openai-google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\">resorting to lawsuits<\/a> to get some protection. Danielle Coffey, who leads the News\/Media Alliance representing more than 2,000 outlets, said Google is using publisher content without compensation while offering no meaningful way to opt out without disappearing from search entirely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">&#8220;It&#8217;s parasitic, it&#8217;s unsustainable, and it poses a real existential threat to many in our industry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border:0\" src=\"https:\/\/myriad.markets\/embed\/market\/s-p-500-pump-to-6900-or-dump-to-6200\" width=\"100%\" height=\"415px\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"width:0px;overflow:hidden;line-height:0\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">The volume of AI content online is rising fast. <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/graphite.io\/five-percent\/more-articles-are-now-created-by-ai-than-humans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\">Research<\/a> from SEO firm Graphite found that as of November 2024, almost half of new web articles were generated using AI in some form, up from just 5% before ChatGPT&#8217;s launch. A post by Ask Perplexity on X claimed AI content went from around 5% in 2020 to 48% by May 2025, with projections saying 90% or more by next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">The Wikimedia Foundation said fewer visits to Wikipedia could mean that fewer volunteers grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors support the work. The foundation is responding by enforcing policies for third-party access, developing a framework for attribution, and experimenting with ways to bring free knowledge to younger audiences on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">The foundation said Wikipedia&#8217;s human knowledge is more valuable to the world than ever before, 25 years since its creation. The question is whether the platforms using that knowledge will support the ecosystem that creates it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">The Wikipedia Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comments by <i>Decrypt<\/i>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-4 border-b border-decryptGridline\">\n<div class=\"text-start p-8 md:py-12 md:px-12 max-w-prose relative\"><span class=\"border-t-4 border-l-4 w-4 h-4 md:border-t-[6px] md:border-l-[6px] md:w-6 md:h-6 border-decryptPurple dark:border-decryptNeon gg-dark:border-cc-pink-2 absolute top-4 left-4 md:top-6 md:left-6\"\/><span class=\"border-t-4 border-l-4 w-4 h-4 md:border-t-[6px] md:border-l-[6px] md:w-6 md:h-6 border-decryptPurple dark:border-decryptNeon gg-dark:border-cc-pink-2 absolute rotate-180 bottom-4 right-4 md:bottom-6 md:right-6\"\/><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"font-akzidenz-grotesk font-bold text-xl md:text-3xl md:text-center gg-dark:text-white\">Generally Intelligent<!-- --> Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>A weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief Human visits to Wikipedia fell 8% year-over-year, with Wikipedia attributing it to people visiting AI summaries instead of consulting Wikipedia. AI summaries and search engines now answer questions outright, with nearly 60% of Google queries ending in on-page responses powered by Wikipedia content. Publishers call the trend &#8220;existential,&#8221; accusing tech platforms of using [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-408539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408541,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408539\/revisions\/408541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}