Elon Musk launches his version of Wikipedia

Elon Musk launched Grokipedia – his version of Wikipedia – on Monday, as the richest man in the world further seeks to create an alternative information and media ecosystem molded to his views.

The articles are written by Musk’s Grok AI, and the site mimics Wikipedia’s minimalist style, page structure and reference style. But Grokipedia is far smaller so far – just over 800,000 articles, compared to Wikipedia’s more than 7 million.

While anyone can write and edit Wikipedia articles, it’s unclear how much humans are involved with Grokipedia articles. Users do have an option to send feedback if they believe they’ve caught an error.

“The goal of Grok and Grokipedia.com is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We will never be perfect, but we shall nonetheless strive towards that goal,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, adding later that he hopes to send copies of Grokipedia “etched in a stable oxide in orbit, the Moon and Mars to preserve it for the future.”

Conservatives have long accused Wikipedia of strong liberal bias, and Musk has accused Wikipedia of being “controlled by far-left activists.”

Users have already pointed out stark differences between Grokipedia and Wikipedia articles, starting with articles about Musk himself.

Wikipedia’s version describes him as a “polarizing figure,” who has been “criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments.”

The article notes the rise of “hate speech and the spread of misinformation” after his purchase of Twitter in 2022 (now called X).

Grokipedia’s version says Musk “has influenced broader debates on technological progress, demographic decline, and institutional biases.” It says that after purchasing Twitter, he has “prioritized content moderation reforms amid criticisms from legacy media outlets that exhibit systemic left-leaning tilts in coverage,” citing as its source the Forbes’ billionaires rankings and not to a specific document, article or social media post backing up the claim.

The Grokipedia article about George Floyd - whose death during an arrest in 2020 sparked nationwide protests about police conduct and racism - starts with describing Floyd as “an American man with a lengthy criminal record including convictions for armed robbery, drug possession and theft,” years before his death.

Wikipedia’s article begins with describing Floyd as a man “murdered by a white police officer.” Grokipedia’s entry on Floyd focuses on the drugs in Floyd’s system during his death, which was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner.

In another example of Grokipedia citing sources that do not seem to reference what Grokipedia writes, the article about Floyd describes the nationwide protests after his death as “extensive civil unrest … including riots causing billions in property damage.” But the section cites an obituary in the Texas State Historical Association website that does not make any such claims.

When asked for comment about these discrepancies, xAI’s media email now automatically replied with “Legacy Media Lies.”

Musk has said Grokipedia will be continuously updated. “As Grok improves, so will Grokipedia,” he wrote on X on Tuesday. “We are embedding the principles of critical thinking and cogency into Grok.”

Source - CNN