Jimmy Wales said he wasn’t surprised by backlash to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia and questioned whether people will trust an encyclopedia that appears to have a "thumb on the scales." He contrasted Wikipedia’s collaborative editing with Musk’s likely top-down approach and warned about relying on xAI’s Grok due to AI "hallucinations." Observers have found Grokipedia pages that closely mirror Wikipedia and noted political differences on topics like January 6 and Gamergate. Grokipedia now lists roughly 1.09 million articles versus Wikipedia’s more than 7 million.
Jimmy Wales Warns Grokipedia Faces Trust Issues — Questions AI-Generated Encyclopedia With a "Thumb on the Scales"
Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales suggested people may not trust Elon Musk's AI-powered rival, Grokipedia.Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales said he was not surprised by the criticism aimed at Elon Musk’s new encyclopedia, Grokipedia, and raised doubts about whether people will trust a reference work that appears to have a "thumb on the scales." Wales made the remarks in an interview with The Verge after briefly reviewing the site.
Wales’ Main Concerns
Wales contrasted his collaborative, community-driven approach to editing with what he expects from Musk’s project. "When I don't like something on Wikipedia, I open a conversation," he said. By contrast, Wales suggested Musk would be more likely to make unilateral changes rather than rely on distributed editorial consensus.
AI And Hallucinations
Wales also warned about Grokipedia’s reliance on Grok, the large language model from Musk’s xAI team. "I use large language models a lot and I know about the hallucination problem, and I see it all the time," he said. "Large language models really aren't good enough to write an encyclopedia." His point: AI can confidently produce incorrect or misleading information, which is especially risky for a reference site.
Content Sources And Political Slant
Observers have reported that some Grokipedia pages closely mirror Wikipedia entries, suggesting content scraping or heavy reuse. At the same time, Business Insider and other outlets have identified political differences between Grokipedia and Wikipedia on topics such as the January 6 Capitol riot and the 2014 Gamergate controversy. Wales cited reports that some Grokipedia entries align with Musk’s political views and added, "It's Elon, but that might not be what we all want from an encyclopedia."
Context And Background
Musk launched Grokipedia in October after a long-running public critique of Wikipedia as biased. He has promoted ambitious plans for the site — calling it a "modern-day Library of Alexandria" and saying he hopes to eventually send it into deep space. Since launch the site has grown from roughly 885,279 articles to about 1,089,057 (versioned as "v0.2"). For comparison, Wikipedia hosts more than 7 million articles.
Historical Notes
Accusations of bias are not new to the encyclopedia world. Larry Sanger, an early contributor to Wikipedia, left the project in 2002 and has since criticized it as "badly biased". Wales has acknowledged Sanger's early role but has questioned the accuracy of the "cofounder" label for him.
Takeaway: Wales’ critique centers on trust — who controls editorial decisions, how AI is used, and whether an encyclopedia that appears skewed to one viewpoint will be accepted as authoritative.
(Reporting references: The Verge, Business Insider.)
