The use of generative artificial intelligence remains a hot topic, with a strong preference often expressed for content and creations made by human hands. English Wikipedia has now officially prohibited the use of generative AI for writing or rewriting articles.
The platform’s rationale states that “text generated by large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, etc., often violates several of Wikipedia’s fundamental content policies. For this reason, the use of LLMs to generate or rewrite article content is forbidden.”
However, as might be expected, there are a few exceptions to this rule. The use of LLMs is permitted when serving to “suggest basic corrections to their own writings, and to incorporate some after human review, provided that the LLM does not introduce content of its own.” Another allowed use is for “editors to use LLMs to translate articles from another language’s Wikipedia to English Wikipedia, but they must follow the advice set out in Wikipedia:Translation assisted by LLM.”
In summary, leveraging AI to refine one’s own written work is deemed acceptable, but only if the accuracy of the revised text is thoroughly checked by a human. Similarly, translating text into another language is permitted, yet even in this scenario, a human must meticulously verify the AI-generated translation.
It’s important to note that since different language versions of Wikipedia maintain their own independent rules and editorial teams, local variations may apply. For instance, Spanish Wikipedia has taken an even stricter stance, implementing a complete ban on the use of LLMs without any exceptions for refinement or translation.