Wikipedia has banned the use of artificial intelligence in the generation or rewriting of content for its voluminous online encyclopedia.

In a recent policy change, Wikipedia said that the use of large language models (or LLMs) “often violates” its core principles and will not be allowed. The English language version of Wikipedia has more than 7.1m articles.

The use of AI has been a contentious issue among Wikipedia’s community of volunteer editors but a vote among the site’s editors supported the ban, according to 404 Media.

There are two exceptions to the new ban: AI can still be used for translations, and to make minor copy edits.

“Editors are permitted to use LLMs to suggest basic copyedits to their own writing, and to incorporate some of them after human review, provided the LLM does not introduce content of its own,” the new policy states.

“Caution is required, because LLMs can go beyond what you ask of them and change the meaning of the text such that it is not supported by the sources cited.”

The use of AI to find out basic information has proliferated to the point that ChatGPT reportedly overtook Wikipedia in monthly website visits last year.

AI has also been imbedded into web searches and email writing suggestions by tech companies. However, AI can still throw up misleading or “hallucinated” results, a situation that Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, has previously called a “mess”.

Last year, Wales said that AI could help with some aspects of Wikipedia, it wouldn’t be used to draft articles, at least for now. “I wouldn’t say absolutely never, but at least not in the short run,” Wales told the BBC. “The latest models are still, from a Wikipedian standpoint, nowhere near good enough.”