Information from Grokipedia, a conservative-leaning, AI-generated encyclopedia developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, has begun appearing in responses generated by ChatGPT, raising questions about how large language models source information.
Grokipedia was launched in October after Musk repeatedly criticised Wikipedia for what he described as anti-conservative bias. Early reviews found that while many entries appeared to closely mirror Wikipedia content, others contained controversial and widely criticised claims, including assertions linking pornography to the AIDS crisis, ideological justifications for slavery, and derogatory language targeting transgender people.
While such content has largely been associated with Musk-owned platforms, including xAI’s chatbot Grok, reporting by The Guardian indicates that ChatGPT has cited Grokipedia at least nine times across responses to more than a dozen questions. The citations reportedly appeared on relatively obscure topics rather than well-documented issues such as the January 6 Capitol attack or the HIV/AIDS epidemic. One cited claim about historian Sir Richard Evans had previously been debunked by The Guardian.
The report also noted that Anthropic’s Claude chatbot has referenced Grokipedia in some responses. Responding to the findings, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company aims to draw from “a broad range of publicly available sources and viewpoints.”
