Tim Bray on Grokipedia

It's great idea to share knowledge bases collected and curated by LLMs.

Amazing that Musk did it first. (Although it was suggested to him as part of an interview a month before release).

These systems are very good at finding obscure references that were overlooked by mere mortals.

"It's great idea to share knowledge bases collected and curated by LLMs"

Is it though?

LLMs are great at answering questions based on information you make available to them, especially if you have the instincts and skill to spot when they are likely to make mistakes and to fact-check key details yourself.

That doesn't mean that using them to build a knowledge base itself is a good idea! We need reliable, verified knowledge bases that LLMs can make use-of.

> collected and curated by LLMs.

Wah? LLMs don't collect things.

I mean, if any of these AI companies want to open up all their training data as a searchable archive, I'd be all for it.

Crucial to distinguish between knowledge, fact, claim and allegation. Compare:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Kirk#Assassination

https://grokipedia.com/page/Charlie_Kirk : Assassination Details and Investigation

This is an active case that has not gone to trial, and the alleged text messages and Discords have not had their forensics cross-examined. Yet Grokipedia is already citing them as fact, not allegation. (What is considered the correct neutral way to report on alleged facts in active cases?)