Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia, has expressed measured skepticism about the level of public trust that might emerge around Elon Musk’s new artificial-intelligence-powered encyclopedia, Grokipedia. This alternative platform, founded by Musk and launched in October after years of his vocal criticism toward Wikipedia’s alleged left-leaning bias, aims to reimagine what an online compendium of knowledge could be under the guidance of AI. Yet, Wales’s comments suggest that both the credibility and philosophical underpinnings of such a project are already under scrutiny.
In a recent interview with *The Verge*, Wales explained that his personal exploration of Grokipedia had been limited—he had only glanced at it “a little.” When asked for his initial impressions, he referred to the growing wave of criticism that has accompanied the platform’s release, particularly regarding its perceived ideological slant and its reliance on machine-generated content. According to Wales, this public backlash did not surprise him in the least. He added that the controversy surrounding trust is central: an encyclopedia that appears to manipulate outcomes or exert unseen influence—metaphorically described as having “a thumb on the scales”—is unlikely to inspire confidence from its readers.
The contrast between Wales’s stewardship of Wikipedia and Musk’s more interventionist approach to his ventures emerged as a focal point of discussion. Wales emphasized his enduring commitment to dialogue and collaborative governance: whenever he encounters a problem on Wikipedia, his instinct is to initiate open discussion rather than to impose unilateral changes. In contrast, he implied that Musk’s leadership style favors swift, top-down action, suggesting that Musk might directly alter content he disagreed with. This observation aligns with Musk’s broader managerial reputation—he is known to engage closely with the internal mechanics of his companies, often dictating strategic and even technical decisions himself. During his acquisition and subsequent rebranding of Twitter, for instance, Musk reportedly directed engineers to adjust the platform’s algorithm so that his own posts would appear more prominently in user feeds, an anecdote chronicled by journalist Zoe Schiffer in her book *Extremely Hardcore* and her reporting for *Platformer*.
Wales also expressed concern about Grokipedia’s extensive use of large language models—specifically Grok, the AI system developed by Musk’s company xAI—to generate and edit encyclopedia entries. While he acknowledged his own frequent use of similar models, he cautioned that they remain prone to “hallucinations,” a term describing the confident production of false or misleading information by AI systems. Drawing on his experience, he argued that such models, though impressive in linguistic fluency, lack the fundamental reliability and factual precision necessary to sustain the integrity of a reference work meant to inform the public. In his view, the essence of an encyclopedia lies in the meticulous verification of facts, something machines are not yet capable of performing at a trustworthy level.
Even as Wikipedia continues to allow web-crawling AI bots to index and occasionally repurpose its content—a longstanding policy aligned with its mission of open access—this openness has inadvertently enabled similarities between Grokipedia’s entries and its own. Indeed, users have noticed that some Grokipedia pages appear nearly identical to their Wikipedia counterparts, raising questions about originality, attribution, and fair use. Wales further cited reports indicating that Grokipedia’s entries tend to align with Musk’s personal political views, an observation that underscores the larger debate about editorial neutrality in AI-built knowledge systems. *Business Insider* investigations have highlighted notable divergences between the two platforms’ treatments of politically charged topics, including the January 6 Capitol riots and the Gamergate controversy, where Grokipedia’s narratives reportedly echo Musk’s ideological leanings. Wales summed up the tension succinctly: while Musk’s perspective may be fascinating or influential, an encyclopedia that mirrors the temperament of a single individual—no matter how visionary—is unlikely to achieve universal credibility.
Criticism of bias within Wikipedia itself is not new. Accusations of liberal or left-wing slant have persisted since the platform’s early years. Even Larry Sanger, Wikipedia’s lesser-known cofounder, departed the project in 2002, later condemning it as “badly biased” and dominated by “liberals and leftists.” Wales, however, has acknowledged Sanger’s early contributions while simultaneously disputing the appropriateness of labeling him a cofounder in the same capacity, a nuance he discussed in a conversation with podcaster Lex Fridman. This nuanced acknowledgment of internal critique underscores Wales’s belief in transparent discourse as the foundation of online knowledge.
Meanwhile, Musk’s aspirations for Grokipedia are unmistakably grand. In November, he likened his enterprise to a “modern-day Library of Alexandria,” alluding to the legendary ancient archive that sought to contain the breadth of human understanding. Musk even floated the ambitious notion of eventually sending Grokipedia’s data into deep space—a symbolic act to preserve human knowledge beyond Earth. Though its scale remains modest compared to Wikipedia’s vast archive of more than seven million articles, Grokipedia has demonstrated rapid early growth, expanding from 885,279 entries at launch to over a million within a short span, marking its progress from “version 0.1” to “version 0.2.”
Whether Grokipedia will evolve into a transformative repository of truth or remain an ideological experiment remains uncertain. For Wales, the central issue is not the technological sophistication behind Musk’s project, but whether such an endeavor can ever earn genuine trust without embracing the values of transparency, collective oversight, and neutrality that define traditional encyclopedic ethics.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/wikipedia-cofounder-jimmy-wales-elon-musk-grokipedia-ai-2025-12
