Wikipedia’s volunteer editors voted overwhelmingly on March 20, 2026 to prohibit the use of artificial intelligence tools to write or rewrite articles on the world’s largest online encyclopedia, drawing a firm line between human authorship and machine-generated text.
The English Wikipedia editorial community approved the new policy by 44 votes to 2, making it one of the most decisive governance decisions in the platform’s recent history. The new language states explicitly that the use of large language models (LLMs) to generate or rewrite article content is prohibited, replacing earlier, vaguer guidelines that had only prevented AI from creating entirely new articles from scratch.
The shift comes after months of mounting frustration among Wikipedia’s sprawling community of unpaid editors. In early March, a suspected bot named TomWikiAssist had authored several articles and edited other pages, overwhelming administrative reporting channels with LLM-related complaints. The editor who formally proposed the updated guideline, Ilyas Lebleu, cited the growing volume of AI-driven disruptions as the catalyst for action.
Wikipedia’s updated policy notes that text generated by LLMs has a tendency to violate several of its core content policies, including verifiability and accuracy, and that LLMs can introduce fabricated citations or change the meaning of text in ways that are not supported by cited sources.
The ban is not absolute. Editors may still use LLMs to refine their own writing, provided the output is checked for accuracy, and may also use AI to assist with language translation, though they must be fluent enough in both languages to catch errors. Violations do not carry automatic penalties, but Wikipedia’s existing guidelines treat repeated misuse as disruptive editing, which can result in temporary suspension or a permanent ban.
Enforcement remains a genuine challenge. The policy itself acknowledges that some editors may have writing styles similar to those of LLMs, making reliable detection difficult. Wikipedia has published internal guidance on spotting AI-generated writing, but the platform concedes that human moderators may miss some content, particularly on pages that receive less frequent oversight.
The editor known as Barkeep49, who supported the new guideline, said the platform’s hope is that readers understand the advantages of a human-written encyclopedia over one shaped by automation.
The policy applies specifically to the English version of Wikipedia. Spanish Wikipedia has gone further, introducing a full prohibition on LLM use with no exceptions, while other language editions retain the discretion to set their own rules. The decision may carry weight beyond Wikipedia itself, as platforms across the internet grapple with how to preserve editorial integrity in an era when AI-generated content is increasingly difficult to distinguish from human writing.
