Tech billionaire Elon Musk came under fire this year for a gesture that has been compared to a Nazi salute at the inauguration of President Donald Trump's second term and promoting false claims of white genocide in South Africa on its social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
But if you looked it up on Grokipedia, its new AI-powered alternative to Wikipedia, you wouldn't know it.
Musk launched Grokipedia on Monday following prominent conservatives such as tech entrepreneur David Sachs and media personality Tucker Carlson, as well as Musk himself, criticized Wikipedia for its alleged ideological bias. Carlson, in interview along with ousted Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, calling the site “completely dishonest and completely controlled in important matters.” Sanger argued that Wikipedia entries related to issues such as crime and climate change are not politically neutral and called for concrete reforms to the site, fueling criticism from the right that the site is skewed to the left.
“We're building Grokipedia @xAI. It will be a huge improvement over Wikipedia,” Musk published on X September 29. “Frankly, this is a necessary step towards xAI’s goal of understanding the universe.”
Launched in 2001, Wikipedia is a crowdsourced online encyclopedia consisting of articles written and edited by volunteers. The site is maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization that uses automated bots and human moderators to prevent vandalism, resolve disputes, and ensure content adheres to a core set of policies, such as maintaining neutral viewpoints and providing verified sources of information. But anyone, even anonymously, can add or edit articles, subject to a moderation and discussion system.
According to Wikipedia, several studies have looked at potential political bias Washington Postwith some finding a moderate left-leaning bias and others finding it politically central in the context of American politics. Some studies show that articles become more neutral over time due to changes made by the community.
“This is an encyclopedia that relies on primary sources, that is recorded in real time and is constantly changing, and the sources are constantly changing,” said Maryana Iskander, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. Mail. “Wikipedia is not biased if you understand how it works.”
Grokipedia, on the other hand, uses the large language model that powers Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Musk's company xAI and integrated into X. It's unclear what sources Grokipedia draws from. Some have wondered does the site have access to X amount of social media posts, while others have suggested that some articles copy Wikipedia articles word for word. (Almost all artificial intelligence systems are trained on knowledge from Wikipedia, which is free to license.) Grokipedia, like Wikipedia, includes citations in its statements, but several users pointed out statements with inaccurate citations.
Grokipedia v0.1, as Musk called the version launched Monday, has about 885,000 articles as of Tuesday, compared with Wikipedia's more than 8 million articles. “Version 1.0 will be 10 times better,” Musk published by X, “but even by 0.1 it’s better than Wikipedia, in my opinion.”
Critics say the new site ideologically right-wingespecially since Musk has done this in the past changed Grock to promote far-right talking points. Grokipedia was originally supposed to launch on October 20, but was delayed due to Musk. said“We need to do more work to clean up the propaganda.”
Observers have already noted some stark differences between the Wikipedia and Grokipedia pages on topics such as gender, January 6, and Donald Trump. Take, for example, how Musk himself is described.
Bye Grokipedia article about its creator describes his career in broad strokes that seem similar to the work of Wikipedia, in places describing him in glowing terms, downplaying or even omitting some of his controversies.
According to Grokipedia, “Musk's public persona combines innovative visionary and brash provocateur.” His interactions with followers on X, says Grokipedia, “promote an image of accessibility and cultural fluency, using memes as marketing tools and performative gestures – such as flag salutations or AI-generated content – to rally supporters, although critics attribute this to echo chamber dynamics and impulsiveness. His unfiltered style, including jokes personal matters and quick comments, contrasts with the CEO's traditional reticence.” positioning him as a billionaire meme lord who uses social media to influence outside of business.”
Describing Musk's theses, which has leaned towards the far-right conspiracy over the yearsHis endorsement, including support from policymakers advocating deregulation, has intensified the innovation policy debate, even as it has attracted attention. carefully examining potential conflicts with its government-dependent businesses, such as SpaceX's contracts with NASA.”
For comparison: Wikipedia calls Mask “a supporter of global far-right figures, movements and political parties” whose “political activities, views and statements have made him a polarizing figure, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been criticized for unscientific and misleading statements, including disinformation about COVID-19, promoting conspiracy theories, and for endorsing anti-Semitic, racist and transphobic comments. His acquisition of Twitter.” sparked controversy due to a subsequent increase in hate speech and the spread of misinformation on the service. His role in the second Trump administration sparked public backlash, particularly in response to DOGE.”
While Grokipedia has a section called “Controversy and Criticism,” it doesn't mention some of the more notable controversies Musk has raised, including Musk's straight-armed salute in January.
Grokipedia also completely omits mention of Musk's maternal grandfather Joshua N. Haldeman, whom some have said inspired by Musk. According to Haldeman, he promoted far-right anti-government and anti-Semitic views and was a supporter of South African apartheid and Nazism. Musk's father Errol Musk. The site also makes no mention of Musk's promotion of false claims of “white genocide” in South Africa earlier this year.
Wikipedia says Musk has “promoted conspiracy theories and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, transphobia, spreading misinformation, and promoting white pride.” Grokipedia makes no reference to these statements or criticisms, nor does it mention the Anti-Defamation League's condemnation of his views as anti-Semitic.
Grokipedia includes more detailed descriptions of Musk's views, including the idea of a “waking mind virus” that Musk claims “killed” his living, estranged transgender daughter.
Grokipedia also contains erroneous statements. It said that after Musk left the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) in May, technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took on a “more prominent role” at the agency. But Ramaswamy actually left DOGE in January to run for governor of Ohio, before the agency even formed under the Trump administration. And after Musk left DOGE, initially nominally led by former health chief Amy Gleason, valid primarily through employees in cost reduction positions distributed across government departments and agencies.
Grokipedia also includes a section on Musk's health and lifestyle: “Musk maintains a hectic schedule: He typically sleeps six hours a night, goes to bed between 1 and 3 a.m., and wakes up around 9 a.m.. It's a pattern he's modified from longer work days to prioritize recovery while running multiple companies. His diet includes the occasional sweets like morning donuts and several Diet Coke a day, and intermittent fasting, which has been reported to promote weight loss of 20 pounds.” although he avoids food and alcohol two to three hours before bed to optimize sleep. When it comes to exercise, he prefers weightlifting and strength training to cardio, such as running, which he doesn't like, seeking consistency to maintain energy during an 80- to 100-hour workweek that often extends into the weekend.” Grokipedia briefly mentions Musk's admission to using ketamine, but does not detail his use of cocaine, marijuana or other drugs, unlike Wikipedia.
In response to TIME's request for comment, xAI wrote in what appeared to be an automated email response: “Legacy Media Lies.”
