Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki on Fandom's Wiki Internationalization Experiment

On Monday, July 7, Fandom, the company which hosts wiki websites such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, announced what they referred to as a "Wiki Internationalization Experiment" and described in the title of the announcement as "A Gateway for Editors and Expanding the Fan Experience." In short, the aim of the experiment is to use artificial intelligence tools as a means of translating wikis into other languages with the hopes of attracting editors from non-English-speaking countries with an already-existing framework for a foreign language wiki.

As a "too long, didn't read" version of this blog announcement: fellow administrator MJLogan95 and I have discussed this announcement at length and would like to make our and the wiki's stance very clear: we are against the implementation of artificial intelligence as a translation tool, particularly for use on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki. Similarly, we are amending our policy to implement a firm ban on material generated by artificial intelligence.

The remainder of this blog will go into reasons for the strong stance against the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and its implementation on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki.

A Brief Explanation

On Monday, July 7, 2025, Fandom announced in a blog post the beginning of this experiment. The blog presented the experiment as a way to move past language barriers. They said that for the sake of transparency, all information translated via A.I. would be labeled as such in metadata, and explained the process with which they are experimenting, highlighting Shōgun Wiki as an example. In an "FAQs" section, Fandom said, "This experiment will initially focus on German-speaking editors, but we hope to expand our reach to a larger audience and continue to diversify content on the platform over time." They further promised to attribute authors of the English page by linking to it in the edit summary of the first edit on the page. This was met with an overwhelmingly negative response in the comment section as people criticized the decision for various reasons.

In response to the negative feedback, Fandom posted another blog on Friday, July 11, claiming to have seen the feedback regarding the project and promising a larger update as soon as possible covering the plan, impacts on search engine optimization, and wider visibility on Fandom's approach to internationalization. They also promised more consistent updates and information about when they will begin with the five wikis they are experimenting with translating, as well as promising transparency about whether the experiment was successful. Meanwhile, signatures on a petition against the experiment, hoping to get Fandom to stop, were gathered, and as of the time of publishing, the number is at 759 voices against.

On Thursday, July 17, 2025, Fandom made another blog post announcement, claiming that in their initial announcement, "The communication wasn’t as clear as we hoped, so we want to correct that." They clarified that the goal was to create an already-existing framework for international wikis with the hopes of encouraging new editors at those wikis who may have been frightened off by the amount of work it is to start a wiki. They further claimed, "We chose A.I.-assisted translation as a way to test this idea quickly. It’s not perfect, but it gives us something to build on." To further clarify, they explained that only five wikis are in the pilot program, some created by Fandom itself (such as Shōgun Wiki) and others created by the community, assuring that they received consent from the administrators of wikis in the latter category before including them. They also assured that search engine optimization, the idea that wikis will come up early in search engine results, will not be affected.

Fandom then claimed in the post, "We know this kind of initiative can raise concerns, especially around A.I.'s role in editing. We’ve heard from many of you, including those who signed the petition about A.I. and editor value. We understand that the sentiment of A.I. is turbulent, but we believe that using LLMs for what we have envisioned here makes a lot of sense. LLM-assisted translation is NOT fully-automated publishing. It is a tool, not a substitute." They went on to explain that to honor that, the program would be strictly opt-in and offered a feedback form.

This update blog was translated into German, evidently using the same A.I. tools being used for the pilot, as noted by one German-speaking user, PretzelRocky. The translation was not marked as being translated by A.I., and PretzelRocky explained that it was a good example of the experiment not working. They noted, "For me as a native German speaker, the text was filled with various oddities like very imprecise vocabulary translation that makes little sense in the context." This blog and its German translation were met equally with unanimously negative feedback.

Our Reasoning

There are several reasons which the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki is standing firmly against the use of artificial intelligence. This section will attempt to concisely and precisely explain the reasons which led me and MJLogan95 to this decision.

Environmental Concerns

Artificial intelligence and its training have been demonstrated to have a large environmental impact that we firmly stand against. One study suggested that by 2027, generative A.I. models could require as much as .5% of the world's current energy use, the same amount of energy used by countries such as Argentina, the Netherlands, and Sweden in a single year. One A.I. model created in 2019 consumed the same amount of energy as a transcontinental flight. Furthermore, A.I. servers need to be cooled by massive amounts of water. In 2027, the current use of A.I. is estimated to drain more water than half of what is used by the United Kingdom. On the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, we stand in support of protecting the environment and against the continued use of a product that is causing such a massive drain.

Concerns Regarding Plagiarism

While the intention of generative A.I. is to create an original result, it has been found in the past that A.I.s can often give a result that closely mirrors, or is sometimes a direct copy of, someone else's work. While this occurs with text-based generative A.I., it is most evident when looking at A.I.-generated art, which has been shown to copy watermarks from artist. The Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki stands firmly against plagiarism and does not allow it in any form, and therefore is firmly against any use of A.I.-generated content as part of our stand against plagiarism. Similarly, we are against the feeding of our content into any A.I. model which could then turn around and plagiarize our work.

Respect to our International Communities

It will be some time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki is confronted with this choice, since we already have several international communities such as in French, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Chinese. Out of respect to these communities, the idea that their work will be "enhanced" by the use of artificial intelligence to establish new wikis is not something we support.

Quality Concerns

As noted by PretzelRocky and in this blog above, A.I.-assisted translation is not at a place where it can accurately translate texts. Translations is a delicate skill balancing culture and language which artificial intelligence is not currently capable of handling, and we do not want our content to be poorly translated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have several ethical concerns of the use of A.I. to translate articles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki and will refuse participation in any program from Fandom that encourages it. We strongly encourage Fandom to discontinue their experiment and encourage all of you to sign the petition against A.I. usage, which will be linked here:

Sign the Petition

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support in this endeavor.

With much love for this and every MCU Wiki community,
Jessica3801 💕💕🏳️‍⚧️ | Message Wall • Contributions 21:02, 20 July 2025 (UTC)