Archive · 17 Aug 2026

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Says AI Can't Be Trusted

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Says AI Can't Be Trusted

A very smart person named Jimmy Wales started Wikipedia, the big online encyclopedia.

He says computers that write with AI can write stories and answers, but we should not trust them.

These AI tools work by guessing which word should come next, like a game of word prediction.

They pick the word that seems most likely to follow the words before it.

Sometimes the answers they write sound really good and make sense.

But Jimmy Wales says that does not mean the AI knows what is true.

He calls the mistakes these tools make 'hallucinations.'

Hallucinations happen when the AI says something confidently that is not real or true.

So even though AI can write well, it does not actually understand facts.

That is why we need to be careful and check what AI tells us.

Sources