Elon Musk launched Grokipedia last week as an AI-powered encyclopedia. He said it would offer „the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.“ But historians and academics who tested the platform found major problems. The site contains factual errors and appears to favor rightwing viewpoints.
False Information and Wikipedia Copying
British historian Sir Richard Evans checked his own Grokipedia entry. He found all the facts about his career were wrong. According to The Guardian, Evans said chatroom comments get equal status with serious academic work on the platform. The AI just collects everything without checking quality.
Many of the 885,279 articles on Grokipedia were lifted almost word for word from Wikipedia. Articles on the PlayStation 5, Ford Focus, and Led Zeppelin matched Wikipedia exactly. But other entries differed in significant ways.
The entry on Albert Speer repeated lies spread by Hitler’s architect. A 2017 award-winning biography corrected those claims. But Grokipedia ignored the research. The site also made false claims about historian Eric Hobsbawm. It said he experienced German inflation in 1923 and served as a military officer. Neither was true.
Political Slant Raises Concerns
Several entries showed a political bias. Grokipedia called Britain First a „patriotic political party.“ Wikipedia calls the same group „neo-fascist“ and a „hate group.“ Its leader was jailed in 2018 for anti-Muslim hate crimes.
The entry on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine quoted Kremlin sources about „denazifying“ Ukraine. Wikipedia says Putin made baselessly claimed the Ukrainian government were neo-Nazis. Grokipedia called the January 6, 2021 Capitol event a „riot“ and not an attempted coup.
Trust and Transparency Issues
David Larsson Heidenblad works at the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge in Sweden. He said Silicon Valley culture values fast iteration over accuracy. Academic work builds trust over long periods. Those are different knowledge cultures.
Andrew Dudfield from Full Fact said the platform lacks transparency. Users cannot see how choices are made. The site asks for trust but does not show how the AI was trained. It does not reveal how much humans are involved.
Musk was encouraged to launch Grokipedia by David Sacks. Sacks works as a tech adviser to Donald Trump. He complained Wikipedia was „hopelessly biased.“ But Wikipedia said its volunteer oversight and transparent policies make it reliable. The Wikimedia Foundation said it writes to inform without promoting a particular point of view.
