Elon Musk’s new online encyclopedia, Grokipedia, is facing a wave of criticism just after its launch, with journalists and critics pointing to significant inaccuracies in its AI-generated content.
The platform, which Musk has positioned as a right-wing rival to Wikipedia, claims to be “fact-checked” by his AI chatbot, Grok. However, this AI “fact-checker” has already been found to have approved false information, including a claim that pornography worsened the Aids epidemic.
This AI-only model, which features no human authors, is a key part of Musk’s strategy to undermine what he calls the “mainstream media.” Musk has programmed his social media site X (formerly Twitter) to amplify conservative voices, and Grokipedia appears to be an extension of that.
The encyclopedia’s political bias is also stark. The Grokipedia article on the January 6 Capitol riot cites the thoroughly debunked lie of “widespread claims of voting irregularities” in the 2020 election.
It also downplays the violence of the event and Donald Trump’s role in inciting it, framing the insurrection as a “legitimate expression of grievances.” This biased and inaccurate content is raising serious alarms about the platform’s reliability.
