Larry Sanger on Wikipedia, AI, and Preserving Human Knowledge

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of ID The Future, hosts Andrew McDiarmid and Nathan Jacobson continue their conversation with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger. In this segment, Sanger explains how his philosophy to decentralize the world's knowledge plays into science and truth-seeking in the age of AI. He talks about the shortcomings of large language models and why humans are irreplaceable and essential to increasing our understanding of the world. Sanger also discusses the challenges that online encyclopedias like Wikipedia have faced in accurately and fairly reflecting controversial or important topics. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Check out Part 1 in a separate episode! Source

Transcript

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0:00.0	ID the Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:14.4	Welcome to ID the Future. I'm Andrew McDermott.
0:17.4	And today I'm sharing again hosting duties with Nathan Jacobson, our director of brand and media
0:23.1	at Discovery Institute. We're excited to continue our conversation with Larry Sanger, well known for his
0:29.3	role as co-founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Sanger has developed a number of
0:35.0	educational and reference sites over the years,
0:40.5	and he's currently president of the Knowledge Standards Foundation,
0:44.1	a non-profit defining tech standards for encyclopedias.
0:50.6	Sanger is also a longtime philosopher with a PhD in philosophy from Ohio State University.
0:52.8	Larry, welcome back to ID the Future.
0:57.1	Hi. Well, it's good to be back. Well, in part one of this conversation, available in a separate episode, we discussed your journey as a skeptical
1:01.6	philosopher and your decision to return to Christianity. We also talked about some of the
1:06.5	arguments for intelligent design that have impressed you along the way, including the work of Dr.
1:11.1	Steven Meyer, William Dembski, and Michael Behe.
1:14.9	On this episode, we wanted to discuss your work with Wikipedia, as well as the challenges
1:19.4	that Wikipedia has had and still has today in presenting information about important or
1:24.6	controversial ideas, both accurately and fairly. We also want to talk to you about your current efforts ideas both accurately and fairly.
1:28.3	We also want to talk to you about your current efforts to decentralize and preserve the world's knowledge.
1:33.3	No easy task, but I think you're on to something with your work there,
1:37.3	as well as pick your brain about the future of online encyclopedias and how to navigate the Internet of today as well as tomorrow. So let's jump right in.
1:47.7	First, Larry, I have a personal question. I have noticed following you on X that you from time to
1:53.2	time post these lovely photo-mages to the state of Ohio, from the Licking River to Mount Pleasant and Lancaster.
	...

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