Wikipedia has revealed it has faced a major drop in human traffic, saying its a result of AI being integrated into Google search and the advent of Google AI Overviews.

The online encyclopaedia as long dealt with issues over Google’s Search updates, which often keep people on Google Search pages rather than open independent websites for answers to queries.

Since Google has introduced its AI Overviews feature, which uses data harvested from websites to create a selected ‘overview’ of information, various platforms have rebuked Google for the impact on web traffic and data usage.

Organisations are not compensated by Google if their information is used in Google’s AI Overviews, and platforms often loose out on vital ad revenue if users do not click onto their webpage and instead stay on Google.

Wikipedia said it realised its drop in viewers after it updated its platform’s bot detection systems.

Wikipedia viewership was down 8% year-on-year, the Wikimedia Foundation revealed, saying that it was a result of generative AI answers being available on Google “rather than linking to sites like ours.”

“We believe that these declines reflect the impact of generative AI and social media on how people seek information, especially with search engines providing answers directly to searchers, often based on Wikipedia content,” Marshall Miller, senior director of product at the Wikimedia Foundation wrote in a blog post.

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“This gradual shift is not unique to Wikipedia,” he said. “Many other publishers and content platforms are reporting similar shifts as users spend more time on search engines, AI chatbots, and social media to find information.”

Miller is right, with some media organisations already taking action against Google’s AI reviews.

Owner of MailOnline and Metro, DMG Media, which saw its click-through-rates plummet 89%, explained to the Competition and Markets Authority how the new AI era is affecting its traffic.

Penske Media Corporation, parent company of Rolling Stone, even filed a lawsuit against Google for using its articles in its AI summaries.

But Google has hit back, with Liz Reid, head of Google Search, saying that “people are happier with the experience,” since the company introduced AI into search, saying that the firm “continues to send billions of clicks to websites ever day and believe that Search’s value exchange with the web remains strong.”