Wikipedia Citation Parallel - Notes on DeepSeek

Tangent comparing AI in education to Wikipedia's acceptance journey, from being banned as source to being more accepted, kids initially pushed to use AI for homework now disallowed, mixed messaging

The discussion highlights a striking parallel between the current "mixed messaging" surrounding AI in education and the historical journey of Wikipedia, which transitioned from a strictly banned resource to a nuanced research tool. Commenters recall how students once bypassed academic bans by citing Wikipedia’s underlying references, a tactic that mirrors today’s shifting attitudes as schools oscillate between encouraging and disallowing AI use. Ultimately, the consensus frames these tools not as inherently unreliable, but as tertiary sources that risk fostering "lazy research" if used as a substitute for primary and secondary investigation.

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Not sure what I read, but sounded like a lunch meeting description; felt void of actual information, with the restaurant replaced by the office. I am in China and can tell it is either Kimi, DeepSeek or Claude (proxied or actually deepseek/fake). The bigger push for the general public died down a lot since last year; kids were pushed to use AI for homework, now it is disallowed and frowned upon. In short mixed messaging.

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> kids were pushed to use AI for homework, now it is disallowed and frowned upon. In short mixed messaging.

in the early 2000s in california universities you'd get marked down for citing wikipedia. so the good souls told everyone "see the number in brackets[2] after what you're trying to cite the article for? just click that then click the archive.org or whatever link there, then cite that ."

Now? i think wiki is considered a valid source? or has it flopped back to being "unreliable"?

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It's not that it's unreliable, it's just lazy research. Wikipedia, like all encyclopedias, is a tertiary source, but ideally your essay should be a mix of primary and secondary sources, while Wikipedia discourages original research and prefers only secondary sources. Wikipedia itself recommends against citing it as research[0] for this reason.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia