Smarts takes! Should be noted, though, that LinkedIn is also cited throughout Wikipedia, primarily to confirm job titles & career chronologies for notable individuals (the same way that Grokipedia is using it). More troublingly, "first-person" LinkedIn essays are being used to support all sorts of claims, from product releases to platform criticisms. The same is true of Medium essays. Wikipedia may "favor" third-party reporting as a matter of policy, but that guideline is so inconsistently applied that it feels misleading to highlight it as a virtue.
Good points. My argument was that Grokipedia seems to be favoring/privileging first-person sources like LinkedIn or Medium *even when third-party sources are available.* That was what I was trying to illustrate with Steven Pruitt's Grokipedia page--it is pulling a lot of information from LinkedIn and Medium even though sources like WaPo and Slate are available. Further, the Pruitt Grokipedia entry varies from the Pruitt Wikipedia entry in that it uses LinkedIn and Medium in places that Wikipedia is not. So in that example at least, Grokipedia is not using LinkedIn the same way that Wikipedia is.
But you're raising a good point that Wikipedia is possibly relying on "first-person" LinkedIn content more and more, and that, too, raises potential concerns. (Maybe you could send me some examples if you have them handy, like the product releases you mentioned.) I'd also be interested in seeing an analysis of how often Grokipedia draws information from LinkedIn versus Wikipedia. My assumption is that Grokipedia is probably pulling from LinkedIn and Medium more regularly than Wikipedia does on a percentage basis. Perhaps the Cornell Tech team can help confirm with a statistic.
Totally agree about distinction w/ Grokipedia. Citing LinkedIn on Wiki (seemingly) represents a deviation from stated guidelines, whereas Grokipedia's guidelines don't exist (or rather, exist within a black box, which is effectively the same thing).
Smarts takes! Should be noted, though, that LinkedIn is also cited throughout Wikipedia, primarily to confirm job titles & career chronologies for notable individuals (the same way that Grokipedia is using it). More troublingly, "first-person" LinkedIn essays are being used to support all sorts of claims, from product releases to platform criticisms. The same is true of Medium essays. Wikipedia may "favor" third-party reporting as a matter of policy, but that guideline is so inconsistently applied that it feels misleading to highlight it as a virtue.
Good points. My argument was that Grokipedia seems to be favoring/privileging first-person sources like LinkedIn or Medium *even when third-party sources are available.* That was what I was trying to illustrate with Steven Pruitt's Grokipedia page--it is pulling a lot of information from LinkedIn and Medium even though sources like WaPo and Slate are available. Further, the Pruitt Grokipedia entry varies from the Pruitt Wikipedia entry in that it uses LinkedIn and Medium in places that Wikipedia is not. So in that example at least, Grokipedia is not using LinkedIn the same way that Wikipedia is.
But you're raising a good point that Wikipedia is possibly relying on "first-person" LinkedIn content more and more, and that, too, raises potential concerns. (Maybe you could send me some examples if you have them handy, like the product releases you mentioned.) I'd also be interested in seeing an analysis of how often Grokipedia draws information from LinkedIn versus Wikipedia. My assumption is that Grokipedia is probably pulling from LinkedIn and Medium more regularly than Wikipedia does on a percentage basis. Perhaps the Cornell Tech team can help confirm with a statistic.
Totally agree about distinction w/ Grokipedia. Citing LinkedIn on Wiki (seemingly) represents a deviation from stated guidelines, whereas Grokipedia's guidelines don't exist (or rather, exist within a black box, which is effectively the same thing).
Terrific article Stephen.
Thank you, Tom. I had a lot of material after thinking about it the past few weeks.