Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, a free online encyclopedia that aims to rival Wikipedia, which he has criticized for its perceived bias towards progressive ideologies. Grokipedia debuted with over 800,000 entries, significantly fewer than the more than 7 million articles available on Wikipedia in English. Musk”s goal is to expand Grokipedia”s content using his artificial intelligence model, Grok, while aiming to attract users to this new platform.
The ideological differences between Grokipedia and Wikipedia are already apparent in various articles. For instance, the entry about Musk himself portrays him as a figure influencing broader technological debates, while Wikipedia states he supports extreme right-wing figures and causes globally. This trend continues with entries on public figures such as Donald Trump and Joe Biden, where Grokipedia presents narratives that diverge sharply from those found in Wikipedia.
Take the article about George Floyd as an example. Wikipedia begins by describing Floyd as an African American man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis after allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill. In contrast, Grokipedia opens with a mention of Floyd”s extensive criminal history before detailing the events surrounding his death.
Similar discrepancies are observed in the definitions of the Me Too movement and the term “gender.” Wikipedia defines gender as encompassing various social and psychological aspects, noting that it does not always align with biological sex. Conversely, Grokipedia presents a binary view of gender based strictly on biological characteristics, stating that empirical evidence supports a strict binary in humans.
The differences extend to entries regarding Spain and its political figures. For example, the Grokipedia article on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emphasizes economic growth under his leadership but also highlights his reluctance to meet NATO defense spending goals and mentions ongoing corruption investigations involving his wife. Wikipedia, however, takes longer to address these investigations and indicates that accusations against Sánchez”s wife came from a far-right group.
When discussing the opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijoó, Grokipedia mentions a controversial photograph with a known drug trafficker, while Wikipedia offers minimal reference to this photo and focuses more on the political fallout it generated.
The entry for Santiago Abascal on Wikipedia identifies him simply as a leader of a far-right party, whereas Grokipedia avoids labeling Vox as such and instead describes the party”s founding principles in a more favorable light.
In the case of Arnaldo Otegi, Wikipedia succinctly states his past affiliation with ETA, while Grokipedia provides a more detailed account of his history with the separatist group and his involvement in violent activities.
Both encyclopedias categorize Francisco Franco as a dictator, but Grokipedia adds a narrative suggesting that his rule ended a period of political instability and violence associated with the Second Spanish Republic.
