Wikipedia started official collaboration with major companies
The Wikimedia Foundation, which manages Wikipedia, has officially announced that it has reached new agreements with major companies operating in the field of artificial intelligence. This was reported by Zamin.uz.
The list of these companies includes Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Perplexity, and Mistral AI. From now on, using Wikipedia data is not just a common practice but is becoming an official and paid partnership.
According to the new agreements, these companies will purchase legal access to Wikipedia data through the Wikimedia Enterprise service. This serves to prevent the widespread practice on the internet known as "unauthorized scraping" — that is, illegally collecting data from the site.
According to representatives of the foundation, the use of Wikipedia content will now be carried out transparently and legally. Although these agreements are made for a one-year term, such partnerships were not previously disclosed to the public.
Currently, new partners, including companies like Google and Ecosia, have joined the list. The Wikimedia Foundation emphasizes that Wikipedia plays an important role in the development of modern technologies.
Artificial intelligence systems, search engines, voice assistants, and many other services actively use the information from the encyclopedia. According to the foundation's position, Wikipedia data will still be used, but this process must be organized fairly and legally.
Thus, while maintaining the principle of "open to everyone," Wikipedia is officially requiring payment from companies that use large volumes of data. This indicates that the rules of the digital market will become stricter in the future.
