Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger says he is supportive of Elon Musk's plan to launch Grokipedia, a competitor to Wikipedia, but he remains concerned that the new platform could repeat the same bias issues he believes exist in current AI systems. Speaking with Straight Arrow News, Sanger said he was pleased to see another encyclopedia project take shape, though he cautioned that xAI's chatbot Grok -- which will power the platform -- has already shown signs of political bias.
Sanger explained that Grok, launched in late 2023, began shifting toward left-leaning responses over the past year, particularly on cultural and political issues. He attributed this to "background prompts" that influence how AI generates its answers, suggesting that xAI may be intentionally shaping results in a way that could carry over to Grokipedia. "If they intend it, that means they're probably going to come up with a similarly biased encyclopedia," he warned.
Despite his concerns, Sanger said he has long anticipated that artificial intelligence would play a role in building encyclopedias and that the technology is capable of producing balanced, accurate content if developed carefully. He noted that he has experimented with AI for similar purposes himself and believes it can work well under the right safeguards.
Sanger has been vocal about what he sees as ideological slants within Wikipedia, arguing that the platform often treats conservative sources as unreliable while giving preference to left-leaning outlets. He described the site's editorial culture as an "echo chamber" and called on new contributors from across ideological, religious, and national backgrounds to join and diversify the editing base.
He also outlined a nine-point plan aimed at restoring Wikipedia's neutrality and urged the platform's current leadership to take steps toward implementing it. While skeptical about Grokipedia's potential for impartiality, Sanger said he hopes Musk's project -- and fresh participation in Wikipedia itself -- could help push online knowledge platforms closer to the neutrality he envisioned when co-founding the site.