Richard Knipel

Richard Knipel (also known as Pharos) is a Wikipedian best known for his involvement in Wikimedia New York City. Knipel has been Wikimedian-in-residence at New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the City University of New York.

He is best known for his actions in 2025, when he and fellow Wikipedian Andrew Lih "averted tragedy" by restraining a gunman during WikiConference North America.

Biography Circa 2015, Knipel was a chapter representative of Wikimedia New York City when he was recruited to assist with the Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon.

In 2022, Knipel created the article Artwork title, whose first revision was a draft generated by ChatGPT which Knipel later edited to conform to Wikipedia standards. Knipel stated on a talk page that he believed this was the first time anyone had used ChatGPT to compose a Wikipedia article. The posting of this article was criticized and shamed by other editors and sparked controversy within the Wikipedia community, leading to an extensive debate about whether large language models should be used in writing content for Wikipedia. When interviewed the following year by Slate, Knipel stated that he believed LLMs were a "literary tool" against writer's block, and that the LLM tended to both generalize and exhibit too much confidence, needing to be extensively edited to tone it down to neutrality.

In 2025, Knipel and Andrew Lih restrained a shooter that stormed the stage of New York's WikiConference North America, who intended to commit suicide publicly. The New York Times and other news outlets reported positively on Knipel and Lih's quick response, and the articles mention that other Wikipedians had awarded him barnstars to commend his courageous action.

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