Re: Published: WMCH roundtable report on “Collective Intelligence vs Artificial Intelligence ” – why we did it and what’s next

Ilario, I have not had time to read this yet, but I want to thank you for
the initiative. We need many such independent, creative responses to the
moment.

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 9:19 AM Ilario valdelli via Wikimedia-l <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I’d like to share that Wikimedia CH and Open Future have published the
> report from our Lausanne roundtable “Collective Intelligence vs Artificial
> Intelligence” (4 Nov 2025), co-organised with Open Future and IMD Business
> School.
>
> I also want to add a bit of context on *why* we did this, because it
> comes out of a very concrete moment for many of us: over the past year, it
> has sometimes felt like “Wikimedia + AI” discussions were happening
> everywhere, yet at the same time the community’s shared space for
> sensemaking was getting thinner — less clarity, less common ground, and
> more uncertainty about where to focus limited time and resources.
> Internally at WMCH, we reached a point where we needed to step back and
> ask: *what should we do in this period, and where should we allocate our
> resources in a way that is useful for the Movement?*
>
> From that starting point, we began working with external partners to
> improve our understanding of what is changing in the information ecosystem.
> Among others, we exchanged with the AI research ecosystem in Switzerland
> (e.g., IDSIA - Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Lugano)
> and, together with input from Open Future, we converged on a simple idea:
> instead of debating AI only through the lens of “editing with AI tools”, we
> should widen the circle and ask experts from outside the Movement what they
> see coming — and what it could mean for a knowledge commons like Wikimedia.
>
> That led to the Lausanne roundtable: a deliberately “cross-ecosystem”
> discussion with people working in areas such as AI development and data
> science, journalism and media, research, and public-interest policy,
> alongside people from the Wikimedia ecosystem. The goal was not to produce
> a single answer, but to map the key tensions and update our collective
> assumptions about the near future — and to do it in a way that is
> transparent and shareable with the wider community.
>
> The report summarises those insights and frames the emergence of a “new
> knowledge loop”, in which AI services increasingly become interfaces to
> knowledge. One concern raised is disintermediation: Wikimedia content can
> be heavily used by machines while fewer humans visit Wikimedia projects
> directly — with potential consequences for participation, feedback loops,
> and long-term sustainability. At the same time, the report argues there is
> no “going back”: AI influence is not avoidable, and the open question is
> how collective intelligence and AI can be combined while keeping Wikimedia
> human-centred.
>
> A quick note on intent and framing: this is a *civic sensemaking* effort.
> It is not a proposal to restrict open access for people, and it is not an
> attempt to tell the Movement what to do. The underlying question is: *how
> do we keep the commons open and accessible to everyone, while making its
> large-scale reuse sustainable and accountable?* In other words, how do we
> avoid a future where knowledge remains technically “open” but becomes
> practically concentrated behind a few AI interfaces?
>
> This report is also meant as a first step. There is the plan to develop a
> draft white paper in 2026, building on these insights, to outline possible
> strategic directions and reactions — not only for WMCH, but as a
> contribution that other communities, affiliates, and interested Wikimedians
> can critique, improve, and build on.
>
> Links:
>
>    - Meta page (context + deliverables):
>    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CH/Innovation/CI_vs_AI#Deliverables
>    - PDF on Commons:
>    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_CH_REPORT_AI_v4_web.pdf
>
> Feedback is very welcome.
> --
> Ilario Valdelli
> Innovation programme lead
> Wikimedia CH
> Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
> Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
> Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
> http://www.wikimedia.ch
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