#137 - Larry Sanger - Will AI Replace Wikipedia?

Let's put it this way. I I wrote the nine theses in good faith. Right? I actually would like to see Wikipedia reformed. I mean, it that's it's absolutely the case. The reason that I wrote the Nine Theses is that, as a friend pointed out, and I just couldn't let go of the thought, right, If I made a reform proposal for Wikipedia and they adopted even one of the major reforms that I proposed, that would actually make the world a better place. And, okay, if you actually think that Wikipedia has done damage, as I do, then I think I owe it to the world to, do what I can to to reform it. Does does it do more harm than good, or is it mainly good with some harm? I mean If you could turn it off, would you turn it off? This show is brought to you by my lead sponsor, Airen, the AI cloud for the next big thing. Airen builds and operates next generation data centers and delivers cutting edge GPU infrastructure, all powered by renewable energy. Now if you need access to scalable GPU clusters or are simply curious about who is powering the future of AI, check out iron.com to learn more, which is iren.com. Alright. Hi, Larry. Nice to meet you. It's good to meet you, Peter. It's it's a bit of an honor, really. Like, Wikipedia is, one of those founding kind of institutions of the Internet that I suppose it is. We never know I I don't know when it started, but I know I pretty much have used it continually. A little bit a little bit less these days. Mhmm. AI has taken over a a lot, but I know there's a a relationship between Wikipedia and AI. But I've got so many questions for you. But Sure. Before we get into the more controversial bits, I'd really love to know the kind of founding story Uh-huh. Of of how Wikipedia came to be. Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, I'll take you through it, briefly, I guess. So I met Jimmy Wales, face to face a couple of times in the nineties. We knew each other through these philosophy mailing lists. And I was soliciting feedback on a website idea that I had in early two thousand and, you know, ran the idea by a number of friends. Jimmy Wales was one of them. And he, replied and saying, forget about that. Come and work for me, and and, you know, you'll start a new encyclopedia. It's called Nupedia. And I thought, what a great opportunity. It didn't pay very much, but it was, like, so fascinating, this this idea, and and he he would give me a a bonus for finishing my PhD, which I did in in, you know, four months after starting to work on that. And, so, you know, moved down to, San Diego, got to work organizing, ultimately, about 2,000 volunteers to work on …