The key is that knowledge is a human endeavor, and the development of Wikipedia and its sister projects depends on human collaboration and consensus. Machine learning tools can augment the process, but AI cannot replace volunteer Wikimedians.

Still, it’s incorrect and counterproductive to characterize Wikipedia as a bastion of algorithm-free people power. In a 2019 op-ed, Katherine Maher cautioned against empty Web 1.0 nostalgia and underscored the important role that artificial intelligence plays in spotting potential vandalism and directing editors to pages that might need evaluation.

Generally, we find most people out there on the Internet are good, says Jimmy Wales. It's one of the wonderful humanitarian discoveries in Wikipedia, that most people only want to help us build this free nonprofit, charitable resource.

So how exactly has Wikipedia kept its good name while newer platforms have failed? And what transferable lessons does it offer?

Today’s internet is an Internet of Beefs. Flat, global networks like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are overrun by memetic epidemics — harassment mobs, disinformation, conspiracy theories, alternative facts, troll farms, state actors, ransomware, extremists. How is it that Wikipedia, with its cooperative ownership, has not been overrun by these sam... See more