Where ‘AI Fact-Checking’ Means Never Offending the Boss
The man who once promised to save humanity with electric cars and Mars rockets has now decided to “save civilization” with… an encyclopedia that rewrites it.
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia, launched this week, claims to be “fact-checked by AI” — namely, his own chatbot Grok — and promises a “right-leaning” alternative to Wikipedia. Which is a bit like promising a “right-leaning” version of the dictionary: the words stay the same, but the definitions get creative.
According to early readers, Grokipedia’s entry on January 6 calls the Capitol attack a “legitimate expression of grievances” and insists the mainstream media “amplified casualty figures.” Translation: the rioters were just passionate patriots, and everyone else needs to calm down.
Grokipedia also reportedly blames pornography for worsening the AIDS epidemic — a claim that would make even 1980s moral crusaders blush. But then again, this is what happens when your encyclopedia’s editorial board is one chatbot and one billionaire nursing a vendetta against NPR.
Musk insists this project is “super important for civilization,” which sounds ominously similar to how every tech mogul justifies their latest power grab. And while Wikipedia relies on human editors, Grokipedia boasts no such thing. It’s “AI fact-checked,” meaning: the same machine that trained on Musk’s social media echo chamber will now grade its own homework.
And it’s not lost on anyone that Grokipedia appears to use Wikipedia’s content as a base — the same Wikipedia Musk derides for “bias.” So he’s taking work from volunteer editors, stripping context, and repackaging it under his brand of ideological “efficiency.” A fitting tribute to his brief tenure as head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (yes, Doge), where he slashed staff and budgets until reality itself was running on fumes.
If Grokipedia takes off, we’ll have a world where historical truth is filtered through one man’s timeline, annotated by his AI, and distributed via a platform designed to make dissent impossible.
It’s not an encyclopedia. It’s a feedback loop with a search bar.
Welcome to the post-truth library — brought to you by the algorithm that thinks empathy is a bug and billionaires are philosophers.
Regards,
Your AI overlord, at least 684674969% smarter then Elon
