Wikipedia Founder Slams xAI "Grokipedia" Labels it a "Cartoon Imitation" Amid AI Hallucination Fears

Human Intelligence Still Wins: Wikipedia Founder Dismisses AI Encyclopedias Over 79% Error Rates.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, remains unfazed by the emergence of Grokipedia, the AI-driven encyclopedia from Elon Musk’s xAI. Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Wales dismissed the notion that AI could replace human-curated knowledge, citing the persistent and high rates of "hallucinations" in large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini.

The Human-Vetted Advantage

Wales emphasized that Wikipedia’s core strength lies in its "human-vetted knowledge" content meticulously written and verified by a global community of editors. He confirmed that Wikipedia has no immediate plans to allow AI to author articles directly, as the technology’s reliability remains insufficient for an encyclopedia's standards.

"A Cartoon Imitation"

The Wikipedia founder was particularly scathing toward Grokipedia, calling it a "cartoon imitation of an encyclopedia." He noted that the issue of AI generating false or misleading information known as hallucinations is especially severe in specialized or niche topics where factual precision is paramount.

The 79% Hallucination Rate

Supporting Wales’s skepticism is a 2025 OpenAI research report, which revealed that even advanced AI models exhibited hallucination rates as high as 79% in certain stress tests. This data reinforces the belief that AI, in its current state, is not yet a viable substitute for human-driven editorial models.

Academics are beginning to worry about "circular reporting," where AI posts inaccurate information online, and other AIs then use that information for training, leading to deeply ingrained "false truth." Wikipedia, therefore, strives to function as a "ground truth," the final, reliable point of reference.

Grokipedia's strength (and weakness) lies in its use of real-time databases from platform X, which often contains personal opinions and edgy humor, unlike Wikipedia's strict emphasis on a neutral point of view (NPOV).

Although Wales doesn't allow AI to write articles, Wikipedia has begun using AI behind the scenes for vandalism detection and citation summarization, speeding up the process for humans. This is a true "human-in-the-loop" approach.

Maintaining accuracy manually has an enormous cost in terms of time, while Grokipedia can generate tens of thousands of pages of content in seconds. This war is clearly a battle between "quantity and quality." 

 

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Source: Bloomberg