A test conducted by The Guardian found that the latest ChatGPT model is increasingly citing Grokipedia, an online encyclopedia created by Elon Musk, prompting concerns about the reliability of AI systems drawing on content generated by other artificial intelligence tools.
According to the report, ChatGPT referenced Grokipedia when answering questions on topics ranging from Iran’s political structure to biographical information about historical figures. The findings have raised questions about the quality controls applied to sources that lack traditional editorial oversight or large, community-based review processes.
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Grokipedia was launched as a rival to Wikipedia, which Musk has criticised for what he describes as a left-leaning bias. Critics of Grokipedia, however, argue that the platform often reflects a politically right-leaning perspective and can present controversial subjects in a one-sided manner. Unlike Wikipedia, whose articles are curated by human editors and contributors, Grokipedia’s entries are largely generated by xAI’s in-house model, Grok, with quality checks reportedly handled internally.
The Guardian warned that reliance on such sources could create a “garbage in, garbage out” effect, in which AI models learn from one another without adequate scrutiny. Its investigation found that ChatGPT repeated claims sourced from Grokipedia that went beyond established knowledge or had previously been disproven, potentially making misinformation appear more credible through repeated AI-to-AI citation.
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OpenAI responded to the report by saying its systems are designed to draw from a wide range of publicly available sources and viewpoints. “Safety filters are in place to reduce the risk of displaying links to content with a high potential for harm,” an OpenAI spokesperson said, adding that the company continues to develop programmes aimed at filtering out sources with low credibility while providing citations to improve transparency.
Source: The Guardian