The billionaire asserts that Grokipedia is set to offer a “massive improvement” as a knowledge resource.
Elon Musk has revealed intentions to develop an alternative online encyclopedia to compete with Wikipedia, a platform he and various detractors characterize as politically skewed. He asserted that his forthcoming iteration would represent a “massive improvement” compared to the current platform.
Named Grokipedia, the forthcoming service will draw its power from Musk’s xAI firm and its generative AI model, Grok, which is currently incorporated into his social media network X. Musk also disseminated user feedback following the announcement made on Tuesday.
Among these responses were a satirical logo combining Grok and Wikipedia, a meme portraying Musk as the grim reaper poised to dismantle the site, and recommendations from Wikipedia co-founder-turned-critic Larry Sanger regarding methods to uphold neutrality within a user-contributed knowledge repository.
Musk launched this initiative following a statement from White House crypto and cyber advisor David Sacks, who lambasted Wikipedia. Sacks characterized the platform as the creation of “an army of left-wing activists” instead of the impartial, consensus-driven information source it purports to be. He cautioned that Wikipedia’s significant presence in Google search results and its function in educating AI models render its alleged bias “a huge problem.”
Sacks’ criticisms emerged after a recent interview where Sanger informed journalist Tucker Carlson that Wikipedia’s guidelines – including the exclusion of conservative media from its roster of “reliable sources” – foster systemic partiality.
For an extended period, conservative observers have charged Wikipedia, which operates on donations, with failing to uphold its pledge of neutrality on controversial subjects. Musk has previously ridiculed the platform, dubbing it “Wokipedia,” and once proposed $1 billion for it to adopt the name “Dickipedia” for a single year.
Musk conceded that Grok incorporated Wikipedia data during its training process, but stated that developers “should have this fixed by end of year.”