Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia | Lex Fridman Podcast #385

Honestly, I find the claim that Wikipedia is not censored or biased at all when it comes to certain events untrue.

" We've never bowed down to government pressure anywhere in the world." As an Iranian, I have many documents on how the Islamic Republic of Iran heavily influences Wikipedia for its own purposes. Wikipedia is a great online encyclopedia, and I use it regularlly. But it would be unreasonable to assume that they are not under the influence of any government. Since this comment received more attention than I expected, I would like to provide further clarification: 1- The documents I have referred to are publicly accessible and were published before. You can search for the title "Persian Wikipedia: an independent source or a tool of the Iranian state?" Later, Wikimedia stated that they had investigated the matter and found nothing. 2- In Iran, services like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and many others are filtered, and people do not have access to them. Considering this, it would be reasonable to assume some level of control and influence by the Islamic Republic government. 3- Despite these limitations, Wikipedia remains a great source, and I will continue to use and support it. However, the claim "We've never bowed down to government pressure anywhere in the world" is a very bold statement.

Can I request Douglas Hofstadter as a guest?

Now have Larry Sanger on. He's the founder that can admit the problems.

Wikipedia already corrected the article on Lex. 😂

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/jimmy-wales-transcript 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - Hexclad Cookware: https://hexclad.com/lex and use code LEX to get 10% off - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - House of Macadamias: https://houseofmacadamias.com/lex and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order 0:47 - Origin story of Wikipedia 6:51 - Design of Wikipedia 13:44 - Number of articles on Wikipedia 19:55 - Wikipedia pages for living persons 40:48 - ChatGPT 54:19 - Wikipedia's political bias 1:00:23 - Conspiracy theories 1:13:28 - Facebook 1:21:46 - Twitter 1:42:22 - Building Wikipedia 1:56:55 - Wikipedia funding 2:08:15 - ChatGPT vs Wikipedia 2:12:56 - Larry Sanger 2:18:28 - Twitter files 2:21:20 - Government and censorship 2:35:44 - Adolf Hitler's Wikipedia page 2:47:26 - Future of Wikipedia 2:59:29 - Advice for young people 3:06:50 - Meaning of life

"How is that the German keyboard don't have a square bracket, how do you live life to it's fullest?", Lex being lex at its highest

00:23:15 @lexfridman Hi Lex! I've been a dedicated follower of your podcast for years, and learning that you were born in Tajikistan too is incredibly fascinating. It's always inspiring to see someone from our birthplace making such a tremendous impact in the world. Keep up the great work, and I can't wait to continue following your journey!

With respect to the issue of the self-referential loops on Wikipedia, it happened to me that someone, I never found out who (as the editor is "anonymous"), edited the Warhammer article to include me as one of the co-creators. Yes, that Warhammer. The massive, international tabletop warfare game of miniatures. That erroneous information was up on Wikipedia for so long that it entered more than a few media articles and at least two academic theses about massive war games. I love and embrace Wikipedia, but am wary of just how common these loops are. As for a solution, it might be useful to include a public change (as a hover box?) log that displays the "change date" for when a fact in an article is changed vs. when the source for that fact was written. Too small of a difference in these dates should be treated with caution.

co-founder, exactly!😊