Wikipedia, Wrapped. Here Are 2023’s Most-Viewed Articles on the Internet’s Encyclopedia

Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)
Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)
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Wikipedia, Wrapped. Here Are 2023’s Most-Viewed Articles on the Internet’s Encyclopedia

Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)
Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)

Remember what you searched for in 2023? Well, Wikipedia has the receipts.

English Wikipedia raked in more than 84 billion views this year, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia. And the most popular article was about ChatGPT (yes, the AI chatbot that’s seemingly everywhere today).

Since its launch just over a year ago, OpenAI's ChatGPT has skyrocketed into the public's consciousness as the technology makes its way into schools, health care, law and even religious sermons. The chatbot has also contributed to growing debates about the promise and potential dangers of generative AI, much of which is documented on its Wikipedia page.

The second most-read article on Wikipedia in 2023 was the annual list of deaths, which sees high traffic year after year — taking the #4 and #1 spots in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Individual entries for notable figures who passed away also garnered significant interest this year, including pages for Matthew Perry and Lisa Marie Presley.

Meanwhile, the highly anticipated 2023 Cricket World Cup took third place — alongside three other cricket-related entries in Wikipedia’s top 25 articles this year, including the Indian Premier League at #4, marking the first time cricket content has made the list since the Wikimedia Foundation started tracking in 2015.

“Barbenheimer," Taylor Swift and more also appeared to sway our 2023 internet-reading habits. Here are this year's top 25 articles on English Wikipedia.

1. ChatGPT: 49,490,406 pageviews

2. Deaths in 2023: 42,666,860 pageviews

3. 2023 Cricket World Cup: 38,171,653 pageviews

4. Indian Premier League: 32,012,810 pageviews

5. Oppenheimer (film): 28,348,248 pageviews

6. Cricket World Cup: 25,961,417 pageviews

7. J. Robert Oppenheimer: 25,672,469 pageviews

8. Jawan (film): 21,791,126 pageviews

9. 2023 Indian Premier League: 20,694,974 pageviews

10. Pathaan (film): 19,932,509 pageviews

11. The Last of Us (TV series): 19,791,789 pageviews

12. Taylor Swift, 19,418,385: pageviews

13. Barbie (film): 18,051,077 pageviews

14. Cristiano Ronaldo: 17,492,537 pageviews

15. Lionel Messi: 16,623,630 pageviews

16. Premier League: 16,604,669 pageviews

17. Matthew Perry: 16,454,666 pageviews

18. United States: 16,240,461 pageviews

19. Elon Musk: 14,370,395 pageviews

20. Avatar: The Way of Water: 14,303,116 pageviews

21. India: 13,850,178 pageviews

22. Lisa Marie Presley: 13,764,007 pageviews

23. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: 13,392,917 pageviews

24. Russian invasion of Ukraine: 12,798,866 pageviews

25. Andrew Tate: 12,728,616 pageviews

According to the Wikimedia Foundation, this top 25 list was created using English Wikipedia data as of Nov. 28. Numbers for the full year are set to be updated by the nonprofit on Jan. 3, 2024.

The top countries that accessed English Wikipedia overall to date in 2023 are the United States (33.2 billion) and the United Kingdom (9 billion) — followed by India (8.48 billion), Canada (3.95 billion) and Australia (2.56 billion), according to Wikimedia Foundation data shared with The Associated Press.



New Process for Stable, Long-Lasting Batteries

The image shows a test cell used to fabricate and test the all-solid-state battery developed at PSI. (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Mahir Dzambegovic) 
The image shows a test cell used to fabricate and test the all-solid-state battery developed at PSI. (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Mahir Dzambegovic) 
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New Process for Stable, Long-Lasting Batteries

The image shows a test cell used to fabricate and test the all-solid-state battery developed at PSI. (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Mahir Dzambegovic) 
The image shows a test cell used to fabricate and test the all-solid-state battery developed at PSI. (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Mahir Dzambegovic) 

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have achieved a breakthrough on the path to practical application of lithium metal all-solid-state batteries.

The team expects the next generation of batteries to store more energy, are safer to operate, and charge faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

The team has reported these results in the journal Advanced Science.

All-solid-state batteries are considered a promising solution for electromobility, mobile electronics, and stationary energy storage – in part because they do not require flammable liquid electrolytes and therefore are inherently safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Two key problems, however, stand in the way of market readiness: On the one hand, the formation of lithium dendrites at the anode remains a critical point.

On the other hand, an electrochemical instability – at the interface between the lithium metal anode and the solid electrolyte – can impair the battery’s long-term performance and reliability.

To overcome these two obstacles, the team led by Mario El Kazzi, head of the Battery Materials and Diagnostics group at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, developed a new production process:

“We combined two approaches that, together, both densify the electrolyte and stabilize the interface with the lithium,” the scientist explained.

Central to the PSI study is the argyrodite type LPSCl, a sulphide-based solid electrolyte made of lithium, phosphorus, and sulphur. The mineral exhibits high lithium-ion conductivity, enabling rapid ion transport within the battery – a crucial prerequisite for high performance and efficient charging processes.

To densify argyrodite into a homogeneous electrolyte, El Kazzi and his team did incorporate the temperature factor, but in a more careful way: Instead of the classic sintering process, they chose a gentler approach in which the mineral was compressed under moderate pressure and at a moderate temperature of only about 80 degrees Celsius.

The result is a compact, dense microstructure resistant to the penetration of lithium dendrites. Already, in this form, the solid electrolyte is ideally suited for rapid lithium-ion transport.

To ensure reliable operation even at high current densities, such as those encountered during rapid charging and discharging, the all-solid-state cell required further modification.

For this purpose, a coating of lithium fluoride (LiF), only 65 nanometres thick, was evaporated under vacuum and applied uniformly to the lithium surface – serving as a ultra-thin passivation layer at the interface between the anode and the solid electrolyte.

In laboratory tests with button cells, the battery demonstrated extraordinary performance under demanding conditions.

“Its cycle stability at high voltage was remarkable,” said doctoral candidate Jinsong Zhang, lead author of the study.

After 1,500 charge and discharge cycles, the cell still retained approximately 75% of its original capacity.

This means that three-quarters of the lithium ions were still migrating from the cathode to the anode. “An outstanding result. These values are among the best reported to date.”

Zhang therefore sees a good chance that all-solid-state batteries could soon surpass conventional lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolyte in terms of energy density and durability.

Thus El Kazzi and his team have demonstrated for the first time that the combination of solid electrolyte mild sintering and a thin passivation layer on lithium anode effectively suppresses both dendrite formation and interfacial instability.

This combined solution marks an important advance for all-solid-state battery research – not least because it offers ecological and economic advantages: Due to the low temperatures, the process saves energy and therefore costs.

“Our approach is a practical solution for the industrial production of argyrodite-based all-solid-state batteries,” said El Kazzi. “A few more adjustments – and we could get started.”


Meta Urges Australia to Change Teen Social Media Ban

Meta has called for Australia's social media for under-16s to target app stores. Saeed KHAN / AFP
Meta has called for Australia's social media for under-16s to target app stores. Saeed KHAN / AFP
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Meta Urges Australia to Change Teen Social Media Ban

Meta has called for Australia's social media for under-16s to target app stores. Saeed KHAN / AFP
Meta has called for Australia's social media for under-16s to target app stores. Saeed KHAN / AFP

Tech giant Meta urged Australia on Monday to rethink its world-first social media ban for under-16s, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts under the new law.

Australia has required big platforms including Meta, TikTok and YouTube to stop underage users from holding accounts since the legislation came into force on December 10 last year.

Companies face fines of Aus $49.5 million (US$33 million) if they fail to take "reasonable steps" to comply.

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg's Meta said it had removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads in the week to December 11.

The company said it was committed to complying with the law.

"That said, we call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivizing all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans," it said in statement.

Meta renewed an earlier call for app stores to be required to verify people's ages and get parental approval before under-16s can download an app.

This was the only way to avoid a "whack-a-mole" race to stop teens migrating to new apps to avoid the ban, the company said.

The government said it was holding social media companies to account for the harm they cause young Australians.

"Platforms like Meta collect a huge amount of data on their users for commercial purposes. They can and must use that information to comply with Australian law and ensure people under 16 are not on their platforms," a government spokesperson said.

Meta said parents and experts were worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.

Initial impacts of the legislation "suggest it is not meeting its objectives of increasing the safety and well-being of young Australians", it said.

While raising concern over the lack of an industry standard for determining age online, Meta said its compliance with the Australian law would be a "multilayered process".

Since the ban, the California-based firm said it had helped found the OpenAge Initiative, a non-profit group that has launched age-verification tools called AgeKeys to be used with participating platforms.


China Is Closing in on US Technology Lead Despite Constraints, AI Researchers Say

 Visitors look at robots on display at robotics company Unitree's first retail store in Beijing in January 9, 2026. (AFP)
Visitors look at robots on display at robotics company Unitree's first retail store in Beijing in January 9, 2026. (AFP)
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China Is Closing in on US Technology Lead Despite Constraints, AI Researchers Say

 Visitors look at robots on display at robotics company Unitree's first retail store in Beijing in January 9, 2026. (AFP)
Visitors look at robots on display at robotics company Unitree's first retail store in Beijing in January 9, 2026. (AFP)

China can narrow its technological gap with the US driven by growing risk-taking and innovation, though the lack of advanced chipmaking tools is hobbling the sector, the country's leading artificial intelligence researchers said on Saturday.

China's so-called "AI tiger" startups MiniMax and Zhipu AI had strong debuts on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week, reflecting growing confidence in the sector as Beijing fast-tracks AI and chip listings to bolster domestic alternatives to advanced US technology.

Yao Shunyu, a former senior researcher at ChatGPT maker OpenAI ‌who was named ‌technology giant Tencent's chief AI scientist in December, ‌said ⁠there was a ‌high likelihood of a Chinese firm becoming the world's leading AI company in the next three to five years but said the lack of advanced chipmaking machines was the main technical hurdle.

"Currently, we have a significant advantage in electricity and infrastructure. The main bottlenecks are production capacity, including lithography machines, and the software ecosystem," Yao said at an AI conference in Beijing.

China has completed a working prototype of an extreme-ultraviolet lithography ⁠machine potentially capable of producing cutting-edge semiconductor chips that rival the West's, Reuters reported last month. However, the ‌machine has not yet produced working chips and may ‍not do so until 2030, people with ‍knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

MIND THE INVESTMENT GAP

Yao and other ‍Chinese industry leaders at the Beijing conference on Saturday also acknowledged that the US maintains an advantage in computing power due to its hefty investments in infrastructure.

"The US computer infrastructure is likely one to two orders of magnitude larger than ours. But I see that whether it's OpenAI or other platforms, they're investing heavily in next-generation research," said Lin Junyang, technical lead for Alibaba's flagship Qwen large language model.

"We, ⁠on the other hand, are relatively strapped for cash; delivery alone likely consumes the majority of our computer infrastructure," Lin said during a panel discussion at the AGI-Next Frontier Summit held by the Beijing Key Laboratory of Foundational Models at Tsinghua University.

Lin said China's limited resources have spurred its researchers to be innovative, particularly through algorithm-hardware co-design, which enables AI firms to run large models on smaller, inexpensive hardware.

Tang Jie, founder of Zhipu AI which raised HK$4.35 billion in its IPO, also highlighted the willingness of younger Chinese AI entrepreneurs to embrace high-risk ventures - a trait traditionally associated with Silicon Valley - as a positive development.

"I think if we can improve this environment, ‌allowing more time for these risk-taking, intelligent individuals to engage in innovative endeavors ... this is something our government and the country can help improve," said Tang.