Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, officially launched Grokipedia on Monday, positioning the AI-generated encyclopedia as a rival to Wikipedia, a platform he has repeatedly criticized for alleged ideological bias.

The new site, released as version 0.1, already contained more than 2$885,000$ articles upon launch, though this is significantly smaller than Wikipedia’s English version, which hosts over seven million articles.3 Musk has promised that a future version 1.0 will be “10X better” than the current live site, which he claims is already “better than Wikipedia.”

Musk shared the platform’s mission on X, stating, “The goal of Grok and Grokipedia.com is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We will never be perfect, but we shall nonetheless strive towards that goal.”

The release was initially scheduled for the end of September but was delayed by the entrepreneur to “purge out the propaganda.”

Musk has been a consistent critic of Wikipedia, previously accusing the site of being “controlled by far-left activists” and arguing that its editorial control is “extremely left-biased,” making it unsuitable as a definitive source for X’s Community Notes.

Grokipedia’s content is primarily generated by artificial intelligence and the generative AI assistant, Grok.

A Grokipedia article dedicated to Musk itself reflects this stance, stating that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has “influenced broader debates on technological progress, demographic decline, and institutional biases, often via X,” amid what the page describes as “criticisms from legacy media outlets that exhibit systemic left-leaning tilts in coverage.”

In contrast, the original Wikipedia, created in 2001, is a collaborative encyclopedia managed by volunteers, largely funded by donations, and claims a “neutral point of view” in its content.

The Federal Government, through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, says the threat by WhatsApp to exit Nigeria due to the Commission’s recent order will not exonerate the company from the outcome of a judicial process.

In a statement by its Director, Corporate Affairs, Ondaje Ijagwu on Saturday in Abuja, FCCPC said the Meta Parties should take steps to comply with Nigeria’s law.

Ijagwu said the threat was a calculated move aimed at inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.

According to him, the recent affirmation of FCCPC’s final order by the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal required Meta Parties to stop exploiting Nigerian consumers, and change their practices to meet Nigerian standards consistent with international best practices.

DAILY POST recalls that Ijagwu said the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal had awarded 220 million dollars against Meta Platforms Incorporated and WhatsApp LLC as an administrative penalty for the violations.

Meta had threatened to shut down its Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in protest of the large fines imposed by multiple government agencies.

It will also be recalled that the tribunal further awarded 35,000 dollars to the FCCPC as cost of investigation.

”The FCCPC investigated Meta Platforms and WhatsApp (jointly referred to as “Meta Parties”) for allegedly violating the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, FCCPA, and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, NDPR.

”The Commission found that Meta Parties engaged in multiple and repeated infringements of the FCCPA (2018) and the NDPR.

”These infringements include denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation.

”Others are discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” he said.

According to Ijagwu, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas (1.5 billion dollars ) and only recently was asked to pay 1.3 billion dollars for violating European Union, EU, Data Privacy Rules.

He reiterated that Meta had faced penalties in India, South Korea, France and Australia for similar breaches.

The Commission’s director further stated that Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries rather, they obeyed.

He expressed the Commission’s commitment in its pursuit of consumer protection and data privacy toward ensuring a fairer digital market in the country.

TikTok said it removed over 2.1 million videos in Nigeria in the second quarter of 2024 for violating its community guidelines.

According to the Community Guidelines Enforcement Report shared on Tuesday, Tiktok said the action is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to enhance content moderation and create a safer platform for users.

“Key findings show that 99.1 per cent of these videos were proactively removed before users reported them, with 90.7 per cent taken down within 24 hours.

“These figures highlight TikTok’s commitment to staying ahead of harmful content, ensuring a safer platform for Nigerian users,” the report noted.

The affected videos represent less than 1 per cent of the total uploads in Nigeria during the reporting period.

Globally, TikTok said it removed over 178 million videos in June 2024, with 144 million of those removals facilitated through automated systems.

“With a proactive detection rate now at 98.2 per cent globally, TikTok is more efficient than ever at addressing harmful content before users encounter it,” the short-form mobile video platform stated.

It, however, assured that it would continue to invest in technologies aimed at improving content moderation and understanding potential risks.

It also reinforced its dedication to transparency and platform safety for its diverse user base in Nigeria and worldwide.