Attendees at the Wikimania 2025./HANDOUT
Leading African
technology experts and open knowledge advocates are exploring how the world’s
largest free encyclopedia can embrace AI innovations without compromising its
core principles of neutrality and reliability.
The talk on the
future of Wikipedia in the era of artificial intelligence took centre stage at
Wikimania 2025, in an event that brought together 135 countries.
The conference
spotlighted East Africa’s growing role in contributing to open-source projects
like Wikipedia that power knowledge on the internet.
Speaking during a
keynote panel at the first-ever Wikimania hosted in East Africa, Ugandan
computer scientist Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende and South African data scientist Professor
Vukosi Marivate warned that while generative AI holds vast potential to expand
and improve access to knowledge, it also poses serious risks if unchecked.
Some discussions raised concerns raised
concerns that AI-generated content could accelerate misinformation, bias and
factual errors.
However,
panellists noted that Wikipedia’s unique, community-led model, where more than
260,000 volunteers collaborate across 300 languages, offers a blueprint for
harnessing AI responsibly.
“We must ensure
that AI supports our mission, not undermining it, we have seen the development
of models such as speech recognition that are helping a local communities,”
said Dr. Nakatumba-Nabende.
The panel, part of
a four-day conference attended by more than 2,300 participants from 135
countries, reflected a broader theme of the event: safeguarding the
sustainability of open knowledge in a fast-changing technological landscape.
Wikimania 2025
marked the 20th edition of the conference, with sessions also highlighting
efforts to preserve linguistic diversity, document cultural heritage, and expand
free access to reliable information.
“Wikimania is a
celebration of 20 years of collaboration and the incredible contributions that
have made our movement strong and successful,” said Maryana Iskander, CEO of
the Wikimedia Foundation.
“As we look ahead
to Wikipedia’s 25th birthday, the question for all of us is what the next
generation needs, and how we will build on the success of the past quarter
century.”