Wikipedia is often described as the last good website on an internet increasingly filled with toxic social media and AI slop. But it seems the online encyclopedia is not completely immune to broader trends, with human pageviews falling 8% year-over-year, according to a new blog post from Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation.
The foundation works to distinguish between traffic from humans and bots, and Miller writes that the decline “over the past few months” was revealed after an update to Wikipedia’s bot detection systems appeared to show that “much of the unusually high traffic for the period of May and June was coming from bots that were built to evade detection.”
Why is traffic falling? Miller points to “the impact of generative AI and social media on how people seek information,” particularly as “search engines are increasingly using generative AI to provide answers directly to searchers rather than linking to sites like ours” and as “younger generations are seeking information on social video platforms rather than the open web.” (Google has disputed the claim that AI summaries reduce traffic from search.)
Miller says the foundation welcomes “new ways for people to gain knowledge” and argues this doesn’t make Wikipedia any less important, since knowledge sourced from the encyclopedia is still reaching people even if they don’t visit the website. Wikipedia even experimented with AI summaries of its own, though it paused the effort after editors complained.
But this shift does present risks, particularly if people are becoming less aware of where their information actually comes from. As Miller puts it, “With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.” (Some of those volunteers are truly remarkable, reportedly disarming a gunman at a Wikipedia editors’ conference on Friday.)
For that reason, he argues that AI, search, and social companies using content from Wikipedia “must encourage more visitors” to the website itself.
And he says Wikipedia is taking steps of its own, for example by developing a new framework for attributing content from the encyclopedia. The organization also has two teams tasked with helping Wikipedia reach new readers, and it’s looking for volunteers to help.
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Miller also encourages readers to “support content integrity and content creation” more broadly.
“When you search for information online, look for citations and click through to the original source material,” he writes. “Talk with the people you know about the importance of trusted, human curated knowledge, and help them understand that the content underlying generative AI was created by real people who deserve their support.”
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![Amazon Is Sticking With ‘Rings of Power’ to the End
There’s many uncertainties in this world, but apparently the future of Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may not be one of them. According to a source speaking to The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg, the show’s considered a “magical halo” by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. As such, it’s “proteced for its run” and likely to finish out the five-season arc Amazon pitched back when it first secured the rights. Getting those rights and making the show has been pretty pricey for the company, and the first two seasons had a two-year release gap. At time of writing, the show’s third season doesn’t have a firm date beyond “sometime in 2026,” and some have generally wondered how much more life Rings of Power had left in it. Goldberg’s report also mentions a tradeoff to this five-season plan: for Rings of Power to live on, a spinoff that’d been planned for it has gotten axed. Major Prime Video shows like The Boys and Invincible have become small franchises unto themselves, and it makes sense the streamer would want to repeat that for its remaining big fantasy series. While Amazon may not get to build on Middle-earth after the show ends, Warner Bros. is determined to keep the Lord of the Rings train going with two new films: a Gollum prequel, and an interquel that also reunites the Hobbits after the events of Return of the King. [via IGN] Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Amazon #Sticking #Rings #PowerJ.R.R. Tolkien,Lord of the Rings,Rings of Power Amazon Is Sticking With ‘Rings of Power’ to the End
There’s many uncertainties in this world, but apparently the future of Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may not be one of them. According to a source speaking to The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg, the show’s considered a “magical halo” by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. As such, it’s “proteced for its run” and likely to finish out the five-season arc Amazon pitched back when it first secured the rights. Getting those rights and making the show has been pretty pricey for the company, and the first two seasons had a two-year release gap. At time of writing, the show’s third season doesn’t have a firm date beyond “sometime in 2026,” and some have generally wondered how much more life Rings of Power had left in it. Goldberg’s report also mentions a tradeoff to this five-season plan: for Rings of Power to live on, a spinoff that’d been planned for it has gotten axed. Major Prime Video shows like The Boys and Invincible have become small franchises unto themselves, and it makes sense the streamer would want to repeat that for its remaining big fantasy series. While Amazon may not get to build on Middle-earth after the show ends, Warner Bros. is determined to keep the Lord of the Rings train going with two new films: a Gollum prequel, and an interquel that also reunites the Hobbits after the events of Return of the King. [via IGN] Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Amazon #Sticking #Rings #PowerJ.R.R. Tolkien,Lord of the Rings,Rings of Power](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/lotr-rings-of-power-hed-1280x853.jpg)




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