We all know AI data-scrapes for free off of normal people - but did they get Wikipedia's database for free? Or was a deal done amongst gentlemen billionaires?

I'm going the latter. Wikipedia had already proven itself during Covid to be a malevolent info-controlling force - only conclusion i could draw was that its cyber-space (which started as a neat idea) had become over-run by United Front Work Dept operatives.

It used to be that google would-auto bump Wikipedia to the top of a search - now it's AI. AI must have gotten an awful lot of it's info from Wikipedia - it was free to access - but was it free to AI or did money change hands?

Or is it the same hands? is probably a better question. Was all that info cunningly harvested via Wikipedia to fuel AI.