How Wikipedia will survive AI, with CEO Maryana Iskander | Rapid Respomse
About Maryana
- CEO of Wikimedia Foundation, supporting Wikipedia's 15B+ monthly visits (2024)
- Former CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, tackling youth unemployment in Africa
- Recipient of the 2019 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship
- Former COO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America
- Clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
| 24:12
Wikipedia is among the top ten most-visited websites in the world, and it’s been a pillar of online knowledge for more than 20 years. The site’s parent nonprofit, Wikimedia Foundation, wants it to stay that way. CEO Maryana Iskander joins Rapid Response to discuss how Wikipedia is navigating AI-generated misinformation, why debates around truth and neutrality will only intensify, and threats to the platform from authoritarian governments. Iskander shares how human-edited Wikipedia is holding its ground against AI competitors like ChatGPT, and her leadership strategy amid social-technological transformation.
Chapters
00:00 Introducing Maryana Iskander
01:08 How Wikipedia works
03:18 What the Wikimedia CEO learned from speaking to contributors
04:41 Managing the public & political perception of Wikipedia
05:24 How Wikipedia handles complex and controversial topics
09:41 How Wikipedia deems what sources are reliable
12:54 Is AI Wikipedia’s competition?
15:49 How Wikipedia uses AI
16:58 Leading a diverse contributor community
19:05 Responding to a rapidly changing tech environment
20:17 Building trust and policing bad actors
22:41 What’s at stake for Wikimedia right now?
