维基百科流量为何下降8%？AI搜索与社交媒体影响分析

Introduction

Wikipedia is often described as the last good website on an internet increasingly filled with toxic social media and AI-generated content. However, new data suggests the online encyclopedia is not immune to broader digital trends. According to a blog post by Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation, human page views on Wikipedia have fallen by 8% year-over-year.

维基百科常被描述为互联网上最后一个好网站，而网络世界正日益充斥着有毒的社交媒体和人工智能生成的垃圾信息。然而，新数据显示，这个在线百科全书并未能完全免受更广泛的数字趋势影响。根据维基媒体基金会的马歇尔·米勒发布的一篇博客文章，维基百科的人类页面浏览量同比下降了8%。

Unpacking the Traffic Decline: Bots vs. Humans

The Wikimedia Foundation employs systems to distinguish between human and automated bot traffic. Miller notes that the decline "over the past few months" became clearer following an update to Wikipedia's bot-detection systems. This update revealed that "much of the unusually high traffic for the period of May and June was coming from bots that were built to evade detection."

维基媒体基金会采用系统来区分人类流量和自动化机器人流量。米勒指出，在对维基百科的机器人检测系统维基百科用于区分人类访问和自动化程序流量的技术系统。进行更新后，"过去几个月"的流量下降趋势变得更加清晰。这次更新揭示，"五月和六月期间异常高的流量中，有很大一部分来自专门为规避检测而构建的机器人。"

The Driving Forces Behind the Trend

Miller identifies two primary factors contributing to the decline in direct human visits to Wikipedia.

1. The Rise of Generative AI in Search

He points to "the impact of generative AI and social media on how people seek information," explaining that "search engines are increasingly using generative AI to provide answers directly to searchers rather than linking to sites like ours." (Google has disputed the claim that AI summaries reduce traffic from search.)

他指出"生成式人工智能和社交媒体对人们获取信息方式的影响"，并解释说"搜索引擎越来越多地使用生成式人工智能直接向搜索者提供答案，而不是链接到我们这样的网站。"（谷歌已对AI摘要会减少搜索流量的说法提出异议。）

2. Shifting Habits of Younger Generations

Furthermore, "younger generations are seeking information on social video platforms rather than the open web."

此外，"年轻一代更倾向于在社交视频平台以短视频为主要内容形式，年轻用户偏好用于信息获取的社交媒体平台。上寻找信息，而非开放的万维网。"

Wikipedia's Stance and Experiments

Miller states that the foundation welcomes "new ways for people to gain knowledge" and argues this doesn't diminish Wikipedia's importance. Knowledge sourced from the encyclopedia still reaches people even if they don't visit the site directly. Wikipedia itself has experimented with AI-generated summaries, though it paused the initiative after feedback from its editor community.

米勒表示，基金会欢迎"人们获取知识的新方式"，并认为这并不会削弱维基百科的重要性。即使人们不直接访问网站，源自百科全书的知识仍然可以触达他们。维基百科自身也曾尝试过AI生成摘要，不过在编辑社区提出反馈后暂停了这项计划。

The Risks of Indirect Knowledge Consumption

This shift poses significant risks, particularly regarding information provenance. 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." He argues that AI, search, and social companies using Wikipedia's content "must encourage more visitors" to the source website itself.

这种转变带来了重大风险，特别是在信息溯源方面。正如米勒所言："访问维基百科的人越少，参与成长并丰富内容的志愿者就可能越少，支持这项工作的个人捐赠者也可能越少。"他认为，使用维基百科内容的AI、搜索和社交媒体公司"必须鼓励更多访问者"前往源网站本身。

Wikipedia's Proactive Measures

In response, Wikipedia is taking its own steps. These include developing a new framework for attributing content from the encyclopedia. The organization also has two dedicated teams focused on helping Wikipedia reach new readers and is actively seeking volunteers to assist in this effort.

作为回应，维基百科正在采取自己的措施。这包括开发一个新的框架，用于规范对百科全书内容的引用归属。该组织还设立了两个专门团队，专注于帮助维基百科触达新读者，并正在积极招募志愿者来协助这项工作。

A Call to Action for Readers

Miller concludes with a broader appeal to the public to "support content integrity and content creation." He advises: "When you search for information online, look for citations and click through to the original source material. 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."

米勒最后向公众发出更广泛的呼吁，希望大家"支持内容完整性和内容创作"。他建议："当你在网上搜索信息时，请寻找引用来源并点击查看原始资料。与你认识的人探讨可信的、由人工整理的知识的重要性，并帮助他们理解，生成式AI背后的内容是由真实的人创造的，他们值得获得支持。"

About the Author
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.

关于作者
安东尼·哈是TechCrunch的周末编辑。此前，他曾担任Adweek的科技记者、VentureBeat的高级编辑、霍利斯特自由兰斯报的地方政府记者，以及一家风险投资公司的内容副总裁。他居住在纽约市。