- Want to edit that Wikipedia
entry on 2001 A Space Odyssey?
- I'm sorry, I can't
let you do that, Dave.
(electronic music)
News flash!
Wikipedia is losing editors
and artificial intelligence
may be the solution.
For the last several years,
Wikipedia has seen a decline in
the population of people
willing to edit articles in the
crowd-sourced encyclopedia.
That's why the Wikimedia
Foundation has created an
AI program not to replace human
editors, but to retain them.
Why is the site losing
editors in the first place?
It's largely because
Wikipedia is complicated.
And the old-timers can be a
bit unforgiving when a newbie
makes an error.
There are lots of rules you
are supposed to follow when
you make edits.
When an editor breaks one
of these rules, the typical
response is that someone from
the old guard will remove or
reverse the edit in question.
Usually, no effort is made to
contact the editor who make
the mistake.
To new editors, this might
feel like they are being lumped
in with vandals and trolls.
But in reality, their edits
were well-intentioned.
In order to keep Wikipedia
viable, new editors need to be
brought into the community.
And here's where the
AI software swoops in.
It's called the Objective
Revision Evaluation Service.
Or ORES.
ORES's job is to scan articles
that have had recent edits
and differentiate any innocent
mistakes from what are called
damaging edits.
A damaging edit could be an
act of online vandalism or
a biased editor putting
his or her perspective into
an article as fact.
ORES is built to determine
whether an editor was
intentionally breaking the
rules, or just making a mistake.
And then, gives you the option
to contact the editor to ask
for a revision that
follows Wikipedia's rules.
You can explain which rules
are applicable, and how the
original edit violated them.
It's interesting to note, that
this AI software is meant to
protect peoples' feelings.
I think we usually consider
artificial intelligence to be
cold and calculating.
But ORES is all about fostering
a community of editors that
is declined by 40 percent
over the last eight years.
But will the Wikipedia
community actually use it?
I sure hope so.
I'd be heart-broken if I
couldn't go to Wikipedia to learn
more about particle physics,
or how Bronson Pinchot
once played an alien in a
short-lived sci-fi sitcom
called Meego.
Look it up.
One thing's for certain,
though, we're sticking around.
So, don't forgot to visit
now.howstuffworks.com
every day to catch up on
all the coolest stories
happening right now.
