Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales warns of addictive nature of social media

TOKYO -- Wikipedia has become an essential online tool but as misinformation spreads rampantly on the internet, its founder Jimmy Wales tells Nikkei about the challenges the 23-year-old nonprofit encyclopedia faces in building a platform for the distribution of accurate information.

The advent of generative artificial intelligence further muddies the water, allowing bad actors to create highly convincing videos and audio recordings to perpetuate falsehoods. This is especially a problem during elections, when it can be used to spread lies and misinformation, manipulate public opinion and skew results. There are worries that in the runup to the U.S. elections in November, the public would be subject to an onslaught of misinformation.