Knowledge is Human: The Information Ecosystem in the age of AI

Blog series Digital Scholarship

On Monday 20th October, the British Library is joining forces with Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation to explore the impact of AI on open knowledge and the wider information landscape.

Fundamental to this landscape are contributions from humans – including professionals from media, research and cultural heritage, as well as the volunteers who contribute to the Wikimedia projects and other open platforms.

This day-long summit will bring together experts and practitioners in the British Library’s Knowledge Centre to discuss the threats and opportunities at the intersection of AI, open knowledge and human rights.

Please register to attend.

As we look to the future of information, how do we ensure that machine learning supports human learning, and build sustainability and information integrity into new models of content creation? At the heart of the event is the idea that the creation and curation of knowledge is fundamentally a human endeavour.

Sessions will cover: safeguarding knowledge as a public good; best practice in transformative reuse of open culture and science; the human labour behind AI systems; advancing media literacy in the context of AI; and practical efforts at advocating for change.

The preservation of the human-centred knowledge ecosystem is even more critical today as it continues to power large language models and other content reusers to bring information to internet users in new ways. We hope you will join us in building a shared vision for an open, trusted, and resilient internet.

The summit is free to attend and open to all. We particularly welcome guests from civil society, those working in content creation, and technology companies developing AI models or Generative AI platforms.

The summit will be held on Monday 20 October 2025 from 10am to 4.30pm
at the Knowledge Centre of the British Library. Please register to attend.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Its vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. The Foundation hosts Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; builds software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; supports the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia projects possible. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

Wikimedia UK is the national charity for the global Wikimedia movement, bringing together practical and policy expertise about Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. Our mission is to enable people in the UK to engage with open knowledge and access reliable information in order to develop their understanding of the world, and make informed decisions about issues that affect them. Every year, the content shared with the Wikimedia projects through our partnership programmes receives billions of views, and we reach thousands of people directly through our education, outreach and advocacy activities.