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.

"Anyone can comment and challenge" Yeah, except when they lock everything down. Dude's full of it.

I like to call them wacky-pedia. It’s supposed to be open sourced but there’s clear bias in certain areas, ranging from geopolitics to sciences.

Wikipedia already corrected the article on Lex. 😂

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

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

Wikipedia got a bunch wrong about a living person. (Lex) Just remember that when reading about all other people living and dead on Wikipedia.

Im currently going through very severe food poisoning, and ejecting all matter from the top and bottom during this. I just want to thank this 3 hour 15min podcast to help me get through it, im feeling alot better. Thank you. fyi the outback shrimp is not to be trusted.

"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