Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia at CogX Festival London. Matthew Davies / The National
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia at CogX Festival London. Matthew Davies / The National
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia at CogX Festival London. Matthew Davies / The National
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia at CogX Festival London. Matthew Davies / The National

AI doesn't herald the end of Wikipedia, says founder


Matthew Davies
  • English
  • Arabic

The founder of Wikipedia has told a technology conference in London that the company is "for now, not worried" that artificial intelligence could spell the end of the online encyclopaedia.

Speaking at the CogX Festival, Jimmy Wales said "the problem with ChatGPT and other models is that they hallucinate far too much."

ChatGPT, which was developed by OpenAI and has the financial backing of Microsoft, will trail through the internet at breakneck speed to bring together what the algorithm calculates will be the most informative answer to a particular question.

One of Mr Wales' examples of it "hallucinating" is when he asks the question of the sophisticated AI chatbot, ChatGPT, 'who did Kate Garvey (his wife) marry?'

"I get a different answer everyday, so that's quite fun. The favourite was that she married (British politician) Peter Mandelson."

"That kind of example illustrates what isn't working," he added.

'Not make stuff up out of thin air'

Mr Wales pointed to the issue of grounding as one of "harder problems" with AI and getting the technology not "make stuff up out of thin air."

"Because the way the technology works, it's this giant probability model that predicts the next word, and it really doesn't know where it got the information."

"One of our complaints about ChatGPT for example, as we begin to try and use it in small ways, is that if you ask it how it knew a certain thing, it has no idea."

Nonetheless, he does believe that advances will be made and that, at the moment, Wikipedia was looking at ways to use AI technology to "build useful tools for our community volunteers."

However, for Mr Wales AI has been full of surprises.

"If you went back 20 years, and said, 'what would the first AI be like?' I think most people would have said that it'll be very dry, it'll just spin out facts and have no creativity whatsoever.

"But it turned out to be exactly the opposite. If you ask ChatGPT to tell you a joke, it's actually quite clever."

On the future of AI and where it will take the world, Mr Wales seemed both excited and trepidatious, which in many ways summed up the mood of the three-day CogX Festival.

How close the world is to a point in the future where technological development is so advanced that it is uncontrollable and irreversible, often referred to as the singularity, is a matter of much debate.

"I don't think it's that close, but then again, I was pretty surprised many times," Mr Wales said.

"Lots of things come very fast and we're surprised by them. But should we get out our axes and start bashing computers?...I don't know."

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

MATCH INFO

Manchester City 0

Wolves 2 (Traore 80', 90 4')

The Intruder

Director: Deon Taylor

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Michael Ealy, Meagan Good

One star

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESplintr%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMay%202019%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammad%20AlMheiri%20and%20Badr%20AlBadr%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20and%20Riyadh%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Epayments%20%2F%20FinTech%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESize%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E10%20employees%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eundisclosed%20seven-figure%20sum%20%2F%20pre-seed%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eseed%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eangel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Aldar Properties Abu Dhabi T10

*November 15 to November 24

*Venue: Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi

*Tickets: Start at Dh10, from ttensports.com

*TV: Ten Sports

*Streaming: Jio Live

*2017 winners: Kerala Kings

*2018 winners: Northern Warriors

Specs

Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric

Range: Up to 610km

Power: 905hp

Torque: 985Nm

Price: From Dh439,000

Available: Now

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

Updated: September 14, 2023, 3:13 PM`