Wikipedia has a new competitor
Nevertheless, I'm optimistic. Elon always overpromises and underdelivers. But the end result is usually way better than anything that came before.
And I think it's time for Wikipedia to get some competition.
I've often said that Wikipedia is "my favorite website" and "the quizmasters bible". But if I'm being honest, it's been stagnant or worse for at least a decade, even as their budget grows to ridiculous heights.
I think monopolies inevitably create complacency. Wikipedia's number of active editors peaked in 2006 and has mostly flat for the last decade.
Worse, a small number of obsessive, high ranking moderators use their positions to stifle dissent and launder their own personal grudges into the record.
I haven't spent too much time looking at Grokipedia and I'm sure it has lots of problems. One doesn't simply write an encyclopedia overnight. And, at version 0.1, this is not even close to a finished project. Furthermore, as an AI product, there is serious risk of content that is inaccurate or even fabricated from whole cloth. One must ALWAYS verify the primary sources.
Still, I think that Wikipedia's mission is too important to be left to just one organization. Here's to competition! May be best encyclopedia win.
Who says technology never improves!
Technology is improving, but only for the ones I asked... ask 'K', or 'H' or something. It'd either give an incomplete list, or completely wrong ones...
If I ever need to use generative AI I just use the free ChatGPT instead of my Gemini pro
???
Not sure what's up with that
"Fine, I won't make any images"
Google is known for being overly cautious.
On the other hand, Wikipedia has lots of people fixing errors. It might be hard to get people to contribute to Grokipedia. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but my impression is that humans can suggest fixes but the AI has the final say. I mean, on Wikipedia you might have your edit reverted by a neckbeard drunk on power. But at least they're a human.
I tend to agree that monopolies foster complacency (and Wikipedia probably has been one for too long), but Grokipedia is NOT a good candidate for the position of WP's rival.
There is no way you're going to start a competing Wikipedia naturally. It's the chicken and egg problem. You're not going to rank on Google = no one will go there = no one will create articles.
So you have to do things an entirely different way.
Elon claims that eventually Grokipedia will be "orders of magnitude" more comprehensive than Wikipedia. Right now it is 1/7th the size. But I think there is potential to get much bigger with enough processing power.
It often frustrates me how hard it is to find information on the internet when it's not on Wikipedia. Maybe this can do more? Time will tell.
Sadly, the only reference to JetPunk so far is a list of "companies based in Seattle".
https://grokipedia.com/page/Quantum_leap
BBC News
But Grok is not the alternative I'd want to see to... well, anything, really. And definitely not Wikipedia.
Also, there's no concept of re-directs or synonyms in this thing, and no photos, tables (the one i did see was a copy of wiki) or links either. Also, its style of writing is just...off
Sticking w wikipedia.
I also sincerely worry that now people will even more so just trust ai written sources as facts, which is even worse that it's tainted by Musk and how he want people to view him.
ohh and half the references dont work as links!
For the record, I don't plan on using it (much) either, but I'm interested in seeing where it goes.
Imagine if you used GPT 1.0 and then said "AI will never be able to write a paragraph". I'm not really sure you understand the project if you think all the training data is just Wikipedia. It's definitely not.
However everything else about this is horrible, me personally, I'll never use AI for casual searching, other than looking for sources on niche topics, it's good at that, but people who have switched exclusively to AI searching I'll never understand.
Obviously smart and knowledgeable people will be able avoid these issues but I'm not hopeful at all for kids growing up with this, or the older generation. I've already seen how my parents lose all critical thinking skills, when an AI confidently spouts misinfo. That's just how people get when so much info is easily and readily available, at least the only other place that has this, Wikipedia, is run by real people and not owned by some wannabe Tony Stark.
We are gonna witness the internet be eaten alive when slowly every page is written with something without a soul.
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just give me Wikipedia, at least they have sources.