Technology

The Most Popular Wikipedia Pages, 2007-2019

Published

3 years ago

November 16, 2019

Iman Ghosh

The Most Popular Wikipedia Pages, From 2007-2019

Where do you go to satisfy your curiosity about the world? Chances are, most people would turn to Google, where the first search result for virtually any topic is likely to be Wikipedia.

Wikipedia often acts as a quick-and-dirty first source of information—and today’s intriguing animation from Data Geek shows what people are reading about the most. The video highlights more than a decade of the most popular pages on Wikipedia, sorted by total monthly views.

Which topics of interest race to the top?

Note to readers: Page view statistics are only for the English version of Wikipedia, which has nearly 6 million total articles to date.

A One-Stop Shop of Information

Since its 2001 inception, Wikipedia has thrived as an open collaboration project, catapulting it into the ranks of the world’s top websites today. Over the years, the upper limit of views for the most popular pages has dramatically increased.

In 2008, the most popular Wikipedia page belonged to Barack Obama, during his U.S. Presidential campaign, garnering about 3 million views per month. By 2019, the page for the United States took its place at the top, this time soaring to nearly 200 million monthly views.

The 12 most popular Wikipedia pages fluctuate in category, with some expected winners. Throughout the years, World War II shows up consistently in the rankings, likely propelled by research for school assignments.

The U.S. is another undisputed, most-viewed page for nine years in a row (2011-2019). Following the November 2016 U.S. election, pageviews for Donald Trump also leapt into the top three.

Here’s how the most popular pages shake out over a decade:

Rank	Jan 2008	Jan 2012	Jan 2016	Jan 2019
#1	Barack Obama	U.S.	U.S.	U.S.
#2	U.S.	Lady Gaga	Barack Obama	Donald Trump
#3	Harry Potter	The Beatles	India	Barack Obama
#4	World War II	Barack Obama	Lady Gaga	India
#5	Kim Kardashian	Michael Jackson	Michael Jackson	World War II
#6	Britney Spears	India	World War II	Michael Jackson
#7	Miley Cyrus	Eminem	Game of Thrones	UK
#8	Sex	UK	Eminem	Lady Gaga
#9	Lil Wayne	Lil Wayne	UK	Eminem
#10	India	World War II	The Beatles	Game of Thrones
#11	Will Smith	Glee (TV)	Justin Bieber	Elizabeth II
#12	UK	Justin Bieber	Adolf Hitler	Adolf Hitler

Musicians also regularly top the charts, thanks to their illustrious careers and the public’s curiosity about their private lives. Michael Jackson holds a record for longest best-selling artist, but also for one of the most viewed Wikipedia pages, especially after his death in mid-2009.

A Crowdsourced Snapshot of the World

These popular Wikipedia pages provide an interesting angle on current events of the time, although it should be taken with a grain of salt.

For example, the 2008 financial crisis is arguably one of the biggest events of this decade—yet it doesn’t make an appearance in these most viewed pages. One possible reason is that more reputable sources of information exist about the event, as it was widely covered in the media.

Nevertheless, Wikipedia’s mission is to freely share knowledge, relying on over 250,000 monthly volunteers to keep its information accessible by anyone.

Breaking Down Barriers

Boasting over 50 million articles, it’s not hard to see why Wikipedia has reigned supreme as a crowdsourced catalog of information. However, a lesser known fact is that just one man is responsible for a significant chunk of the website’s English-language articles.

In 2017, Steven Pruitt was named one of Time Magazine’s “most influential people on the Internet” for making over 3 million edits and authoring 35,000 original pages on Wikipedia—all for free.

Pruitt is even helping to solve Wikipedia’s gender bias, and has expanded the share of biographical articles about women from 15% to 17.6% in a few short years.

I’m very conscious of what it can mean to make knowledge free, to make information free.

—Steven Pruitt

Related Topics:information internet wikipedia steven pruitt most popular

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Technology

Infographic: Generative AI Explained by AI

What exactly is generative AI and how does it work? This infographic, created using generative AI tools such as Midjourney and ChatGPT, explains it all.

Published

3 days ago

February 1, 2023

Nick Routley

Generative AI Explained by AI

After years of research, it appears that artificial intelligence (AI) is reaching a sort of tipping point, capturing the imaginations of everyone from students saving time on their essay writing to leaders at the world’s largest tech companies. Excitement is building around the possibilities that AI tools unlock, but what exactly these tools are capable of and how they work is still not widely understood.

We could write about this in detail, but given how advanced tools like ChatGPT have become, it only seems right to see what generative AI has to say about itself.

Everything in the infographic above – from illustrations and icons to the text descriptions⁠—was created using generative AI tools such as Midjourney. Everything that follows in this article was generated using ChatGPT based on specific prompts.

Without further ado, generative AI as explained by generative AI.

Generative AI: An Introduction

Generative AI refers to a category of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that generate new outputs based on the data they have been trained on. Unlike traditional AI systems that are designed to recognize patterns and make predictions, generative AI creates new content in the form of images, text, audio, and more.

Generative AI uses a type of deep learning called generative adversarial networks (GANs) to create new content. A GAN consists of two neural networks: a generator that creates new data and a discriminator that evaluates the data. The generator and discriminator work together, with the generator improving its outputs based on the feedback it receives from the discriminator until it generates content that is indistinguishable from real data.

Generative AI has a wide range of applications, including:

Images: Generative AI can create new images based on existing ones, such as creating a new portrait based on a person’s face or a new landscape based on existing scenery
Text: Generative AI can be used to write news articles, poetry, and even scripts. It can also be used to translate text from one language to another
Audio: Generative AI can generate new music tracks, sound effects, and even voice acting

Disrupting Industries

People have concerns that generative AI and automation will lead to job displacement and unemployment, as machines become capable of performing tasks that were previously done by humans. They worry that the increasing use of AI will lead to a shrinking job market, particularly in industries such as manufacturing, customer service, and data entry.

Generative AI has the potential to disrupt several industries, including:

Advertising: Generative AI can create new advertisements based on existing ones, making it easier for companies to reach new audiences
Art and Design: Generative AI can help artists and designers create new works by generating new ideas and concepts
Entertainment: Generative AI can create new video games, movies, and TV shows, making it easier for content creators to reach new audiences

Overall, while there are valid concerns about the impact of AI on the job market, there are also many potential benefits that could positively impact workers and the economy.

In the short term, generative AI tools can have positive impacts on the job market as well. For example, AI can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, and help humans make faster and more informed decisions by processing and analyzing large amounts of data. AI tools can free up time for humans to focus on more creative and value-adding work.

How This Article Was Created

This article was created using a language model AI trained by OpenAI. The AI was trained on a large dataset of text and was able to generate a new article based on the prompt given. In simple terms, the AI was fed information about what to write about and then generated the article based on that information.

In conclusion, generative AI is a powerful tool that has the potential to revolutionize several industries. With its ability to create new content based on existing data, generative AI has the potential to change the way we create and consume content in the future.