TSir Richard Evans, a distinguished British historian, authored three expert witness reports for libel trials involving Holocaust denier David Irving, pursued his doctorate under Theodore Zeldin, took over the Regius Professorship of History at Cambridge University (a title originally bestowed by King Henry VIII), and oversaw Bismarck’s dissertation on social policy.

However, all these details were fabricated, as Professor Evans found when he logged onto Grokipedia, the AI-driven encyclopedia launched last week by the world’s richest individual, Elon Musk.

This marks a rocky beginning for humanity’s latest venture to encapsulate the entirety of human knowledge, or, as Musk describes it, to establish a compendium of “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” created through the capabilities of his Grok artificial intelligence model.

With his fortune, Musk switched his views on Grokipedia this Tuesday, claiming it is “better than Wikipedia,” or “Walkpedia,” as its proponents call it, highlighting the belief that the leading online encyclopedia often leans toward leftist narratives. One post on X encapsulated the victorious sentiment among Musk’s supporters: “Elon just killed Wikipedia. Good for you.”

Nevertheless, users quickly discovered that Grokipedia mainly excerpts from the websites it aimed to co-opt, is rife with inaccuracies, and seems to endorse right-wing narratives championed by Musk. In a series of posts promoting his creations this week, Musk asserted that “a British civil war is inevitable,” urged Brits to “ally with the hardliners” like far-right figure Tommy Robinson, and claimed only the AfD party could “save Germany.”

Musk is so captivated by his AI encyclopedia that he has expressed a desire to engrave “a comprehensive collection of all knowledge” into stable oxide and place a copy in orbit, on the moon, and on Mars, to ensure its preservation for the future.

However, Evans identified a more pressing issue with Musk’s application of AI for fact-checking and verification. As a specialist in the Third Reich, he shared with the Guardian that “contributions to chat rooms are granted the same weight as serious academic work.” He emphasized, “AI merely observes everything.”

He pointed out that the article attributed to Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and wartime munitions minister, perpetuated lies previously debunked in his award-winning 2017 biography. Evans also stated that the entry about Eric Hobsbawm, a Marxist historian for whom he wrote a biography, falsely claimed he experienced Germany’s hyperinflation in 1923, served as an officer in the Royal Corps of Signals, and overlooked the fact that he had married twice.

David Larson Heidenblad, deputy director of the Lund Knowledge History Center, commented on the clash of knowledge cultures emerging in Sweden.

“We live in an era where there is a prevalent belief that algorithmic aggregation is more trustworthy than interpersonal insight,” Heidenblad remarked. “The Silicon Valley mindset significantly diverges from the traditional academic methodology. While Silicon Valley’s knowledge culture embraces iterations and views mistakes as part of the process, academia builds trust gradually and fosters scholarship over extended periods, during which the illusion of total knowledge dissipates. These represent the genuine processes of knowledge.”

The launch of Grokipedia follows a long-standing tradition of encyclopedias, ranging from the Yongle encyclopedias of 15th-century China to the Enlightenment-era creations in 18th-century France. These were succeeded by the primarily English Encyclopedia Britannica and, since 2001, the crowd-sourced Wikipedia. However, Grokipedia stands out as the first service significantly driven by AI, raising pressing questions: Who governs the truth when an AI controlled by powerful entities holds the pen?

“If Mr. Musk is behind it, I fear there could be political manipulation,” wrote Peter Burke, a cultural historian and professor emeritus at Emmanuel College in Cambridge, in his 2000 work on the social history of knowledge dating back to Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15th century.

“While some aspects may be evident to certain readers, the concern is that others might overlook them,” Burke elaborated, highlighting that many entries in the encyclopedia were anonymous, lending them an “air of authority they do not deserve.”

“An AI-generated encyclopedia (a sanitized reflection of reality) is a superior offering compared to what we’ve had in the past,” asserted Andrew Dudfield, head of AI at the UK-based fact-checking organization Full Fact. While we lack the same transparency, we desire comparable trust. There’s ambiguity regarding how much input was human and how much was produced by AI, along with what the AI’s agenda was.” Trust becomes problematic when choices remain obscured.”

Musk was encouraged to initiate Grokipedia by Donald Trump’s technology advisor David Sachs, among others, who criticized Wikipedia as “hopelessly biased” and maintained by an “army of leftist activists.”

Until 2021, Musk expressed support for Wikipedia, celebrating its 20th anniversary on Twitter with “I’m so glad you exist.” However, by October 2023, his growing disdain for the platform led him to offer £1bn “if it would change its name to Dickipedia.”

Yet, many of Grokipedia’s 885,279 articles available in its launch week were nearly verbatim reproductions from Wikipedia, including entries on the PlayStation 5, Ford Focus, and Led Zeppelin. Nonetheless, other components differ substantially.

• Grokipedia’s entry on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cites the Kremlin as a main information source, incorporating official Russian language regarding the “denazification” of Ukraine, the defense of ethnic Russians, and the removal of threats to Russian security. In contrast, Wikipedia characterizes Putin’s views as imperialistic and states he “baselessly claimed that the Ukrainian government is neo-Nazi.”

• Grokipedia refers to far-right group Britain First as a “patriotic party”, which pleased its leader, Paul Golding, who was jailed for anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2018. Conversely, Wikipedia identifies it as a “neo-fascist” and “hate group.”

• Grokipedia labeled the turmoil at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, as an “insurrection” instead of an attempted coup. It asserted an “empirical basis” for the belief that mass immigration was orchestrating the deliberate demographic erasure of whites in Western nations, a notion critics dismiss as a conspiracy theory.

• Grokipedia’s section on Donald Trump’s conviction for falsifying business records related to the Stormy Daniels case stated it was decided “after a trial in a heavily Democratic jurisdiction” and omitted mention of his conflicts of interest, such as receiving a private jet from Qatar or the Trump family’s cryptocurrency enterprise.

Wikipedia responded to Grokipedia’s inception with poise, stating it seeks to understand how Grokipedia will function.

“In contrast to new endeavors, Wikipedia’s advantages are evident,” a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation remarked. “Wikipedia upholds transparent guidelines, meticulous volunteer oversight, and a robust culture of continuous enhancement. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia designed to inform billions of readers without endorsing a particular viewpoint.”

xAI did not respond to requests for comment.