Interview: Jimmy Wales



Interview with Jimmy Wales

by Jonathan Despres. Go to the Interviews.

What do you think about Artificial Intelligence?

Like many people, I am fascinated with the concept but unsure how difficult it is going to be. It has always seemed to be about 30 years away, although now it starts to seem to be about 20 years away.

I think that human-level machine intelligence will change everything, and fast.

What is the future of Wikia?

My vision for Wikia is that we are building "the rest of the library" - every kind of work that doesn't belong in an encyclopedia, a dictionary, etc. One of the things I foresee for the next several years is increased ease of use to bring in more different kinds of people as authors - right now, we are still a bit "computer geek" heavy, because editing in Mediawiki can be a bit complex. It's a challenge, though, because we want to retain and extend the power of Mediawiki at the same time.

'''What do you think of the Noosphere? "sphere of human thought" (in relation with wikipedia and its future)'''

I think the number of people who will be participating in the global "conversation" will be skyrocketing in coming years. I am hopeful that the faster spread of knowledge will be instrumental in dramatic global increases in peace and prosperity. But I am also cautious.

What do you think you should do to advance the quality of life of everybody?

Me, personally? I should personally stop telling knock knock jokes, they are really lame. Ha ha ha. No, I am only joking. :)

I think that the best thing we can do to help ourselves, is also the best thing we can do to help others: think. Think seriously and with passion. Seek to know the facts of reality.

What a company can do to become sucessful on the internet and in IT?

I think the most important thing is to have a clear vision that everyone can understand.