With generative AI’s ability to create text and videos, the online world has fundamentally changed. However, many people do not recognize that there is something distinctly familiar behind all that AI-generated content: knowledge curated, debated, and documented by *humans*. That’s why Wikipedia’s role as the backbone of all knowledge on the internet has never been more important. Let us explain. ## **Human-created knowledge isn’t replaceable** Science communicator Hank Green recently wondered about the future of AI and whether it would end up eating itself. That’s because generative AI cannot exist without continually updated human-created knowledge—without it, AI systems will fall into model collapse. Wikipedia’s strength is its volunteer editor communities, hundreds of thousands strong, who constantly improve the site’s information.…