Friday, October 3, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Elon Musk plans Wikipedia rival – building encyclopedia with AI

Published today 11:08
– By Editorial Staff
Musk has long criticized Wikipedia for being extremely politically correct and urged people to stop donating to the encyclopedia.
2 minute read

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has announced plans to launch Grokipedia, an AI-based encyclopedia that will compete with and according to Musk be a “massive improvement” over Wikipedia. The project builds on his xAI chatbot Grok.

Musk announced the plans on X on Tuesday. Grokipedia will be built using his AI chatbot Grok, which was developed as an alternative to ChatGPT and trained on web data, including public tweets.

In a podcast earlier this month, Musk described how the technology will work.

— Grok is using heavy amounts of inference compute to look at, as an example, a Wikipedia page, what is true, partially true, or false, or missing in this page.

— Now rewrite the page to correct, remove the falsehoods, correct the half-truths, and add the missing context.

Musk has long criticized Wikipedia for being extremely politically correct and urged people to stop donating to the encyclopedia.

Critics often accuse the site of having transformed into a political weapon with a strong left-liberal bias. Conservative and nationalist perspectives are deliberately portrayed as extreme and dangerous, while left-wing and liberal positions are presented as positive or objective facts.

Grokipedia is expected to attract an audience among Musk’s followers and others who agree that Wikipedia has transformed into a politically biased propaganda tool rather than a neutral reference source.

Wikipedia – a propaganda weapon?

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger recently launched a harsh attack on what his creation has become.

— Wikipedia became a weapon of ideological theological war, used to destroy its enemies, Sanger stated in the interview published on X.

He described how the encyclopedia he founded in 2001 together with Jimmy Wales to bring together people with different perspectives has now become a propaganda tool.

— The left has its march through the institutions. And when Wikipedia appeared, it was one of the institutions that they marched through, Sanger explained.

Controlled by anonymous editors

He also criticized the fact that the most powerful editors are anonymous, that conservative sources are blacklisted and that intelligence services have been involved in editing content on Wikipedia.

— We don’t know who they are. They can libel people with impunity, because they’re anonymous, Sanger said about the anonymous editors.

Wikipedia has encountered internal conflicts among editors about how certain events should be presented. The site is the seventh most visited website in the world. When Grokipedia will be launched has not yet been announced.

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Austrian armed forces switch to open source

Digital freedom

Published 1 October 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Austrian soldiers during an alpine exercise.
2 minute read

After an extensive planning process that began in 2020, the Austrian armed forces have now transitioned from Microsoft Office to the open source-based LibreOffice across all 16,000 workstations. The decision was not based on economic considerations but on a pursuit of increased digital sovereignty and independence from external cloud services.

The transition to LibreOffice is the result of a long-term strategy that began five years ago, when it became clear that Microsoft would move its office suite to cloud-based solutions. For an organization like the Austrian armed forces, where security around data handling is of the highest priority, this was a decisive turning point, writes Heise Online.

It was very important for us to show that we are doing this primarily to strengthen our digital sovereignty, to maintain our independence in terms of ICT infrastructure and to ensure that data is only processed in-house, explains Michael Hillebrand from the armed forces’ Directive 6 for ICT and cybersecurity in an interview with Austrian radio station Ö1.

Long-term planning and in-house development

The decision process began in 2020 and was completed the following year. During 2022, detailed planning commenced in parallel with training internal developers to be able to implement improvements and complementary software development. Already then, employees were given the opportunity to voluntarily start using LibreOffice.

In 2023, the project gained further momentum when a German company was hired for external support and development. At the same time, internal e-learning in LibreOffice was introduced, and the software became mandatory within the first departments.

Contributing to the global user base

The armed forces’ commitment to open source is not merely consuming. The adaptations and improvements required for military purposes have been programmed and integrated into the LibreOffice project. So far, over five person-years of work have been financed for this effort – contributions that all LibreOffice users worldwide can benefit from.

We are not doing this to save money, Hillebrand emphasizes to ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation). — We are doing this so that the Armed Forces as an organization, which is there to function when everything else is down, can continue to have products that work within our sphere of influence.

In early September, Hillebrand together with his colleague Nikolaus Stocker presented the transition process at LibreOffice Conference 2025.

Extract of the features that the Austrian armed forces programmed for their own use and then contributed to the LibreOffice project. Image: Bundesheer/heise online

From Microsoft dependency to own control

The starting point in 2021 was Microsoft Office 2016 Professional with a large number of VBA and Access solutions deeply embedded in IT workflows. At the same time, the armed forces were already using their own Linux servers with Samba for email and collaboration solutions, rather than Microsoft’s alternatives.

This year, MS Office 2016 has been removed from all military computers. Those who still believe they need Microsoft Office for their duties can, however, apply internally to have the corresponding module from MS Office 2024 LTSC installed.

The transition underscores a growing trend among European government agencies to prioritize digital independence and control over sensitive information over the convenience of commercial cloud services.

Anthropic challenges Google and OpenAI with new AI flagship model

The future of AI

Published 30 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
AI companies' race continues at a rapid pace, now with a new model from Anthropic.
2 minute read

AI company Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.5, described as the company’s most advanced AI system to date and market-leading for programming. According to the company, the model performs better than competitors from Google and OpenAI.

Anthropic has released its new flagship model Claude Sonnet 4.5, which the company claims is the best on the market for coding. According to reports, the model outperforms both Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and OpenAI’s GPT-5 on several coding benchmarks, writes TechCrunch.

One of the most remarkable features is the model’s ability to work independently for extended periods. During early testing with enterprise customers, Claude Sonnet 4.5 has been observed coding autonomously for up to 30 hours. During these work sessions, the AI model has not only built applications but also set up database services, purchased domain names, and conducted security audits.

Focus on safety and reliability

Anthropic emphasizes that Claude Sonnet 4.5 is also their safest model to date, with enhanced protection against manipulation and barriers against harmful content. The company states that the model can create “production-ready” applications rather than just prototypes, representing a step forward in reliability.

The model is available via the Claude API and in the Claude chatbot. Pricing for developers is set at 3 dollars per million input tokens and 15 dollars per million output tokens.

Fast pace in the AI race

The launch comes less than two months after the company’s previous flagship model, Claude Opus 4.1. This rapid development pace illustrates, according to TechCrunch, how difficult it is for AI companies to maintain an advantage in the intense competition.

Anthropic’s models have become popular among developers, and major tech companies like Apple and Meta are reported to use Claude internally.

American Oklo invests in Swedish Blykalla – forms nuclear power alliance

Published 30 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Blykalla develops next-generation nuclear reactors that automatically shut down when problems occur – now beginning collaboration with the USA.
2 minute read

American nuclear power company Oklo and Swedish company Blykalla are entering into a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of next-generation nuclear reactors.

Oklo is investing approximately $5 million to become one of the main investors as Blykalla raises new capital.

The collaboration between publicly listed Oklo (NYSE:OKLO) and Blykalla is one of the first transatlantic partnerships within the advanced nuclear reactor sector. The companies will share technology, coordinate supplier procurement, and exchange regulatory knowledge between the US and Sweden.

— By collaborating on suppliers, material data, and licensing processes, we can shorten time to deployment and continue focusing on delivering reliable, clean electricity to customers, comments Oklo’s CEO Jacob DeWitte.

Blykalla develops a compact lead-cooled reactor called SEALER, with a capacity of 55 megawatts – sufficient to supply electricity to a medium-sized Swedish city. The reactor builds on over 25 years of research and is designed to automatically shut down in case of problems, without requiring human intervention.

Oklo develops sodium-cooled reactors with a capacity of up to 75 megawatts. The company targets the American market and aims to deliver electricity to industries, the defense sector, and data centers.

Both companies’ reactors are significantly smaller than traditional nuclear power plants and represent a new generation of nuclear power with passive safety systems that do not require human intervention.

Growing electricity demand drives development

— Oklo and Blykalla share the same practical view on how to bring this new technology to market. By purchasing components together and conducting joint research, we can save both time and money, says Blykalla’s CEO Jacob Stedman.

Through the agreement, the companies will share knowledge about materials and components and make joint purchases from suppliers to reduce prices and shorten delivery times. Oklo may also directly supply certain components to Blykalla.

The partnership comes as society’s electricity demand is growing rapidly. AI development and new data centers require large amounts of electricity while the automotive industry invests in electric vehicles and factories transition from fossil fuels to electricity.

Oklo has previously signed agreements with industrial companies Siemens, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Liberty Energy, and ABB for delivery of turbines, control systems, and electrical connections.

Blykalla is a Swedish company that develops small nuclear reactors for industries. Their SEALER reactor has an output of 55 megawatts and is cooled with lead instead of water. The technology is based on 25 years of research and is considered by international assessors to be the most advanced in Europe when it comes to new reactor types.

The company collaborates with major industrial companies such as German energy company Uniper, Swedish-Swiss engineering group ABB, and German pump manufacturer KSB. The goal is to deliver Europe's first modern small modular reactor to provide electricity to data centers, AI development, and industries.

Oklo is an American publicly traded company that develops reactors cooled with liquid sodium. The reactors can provide up to 75 megawatts and is the first in the US to have received site permits from authorities. Oklo has also submitted the first application to build and operate a new type of reactor in the United States.

The company also works with technology that can recycle old nuclear fuel and convert nuclear waste into new energy. Their customers include industry, data centers, and the US Department of Defense.

Swedes turn to private apps as social media sharing declines

Published 29 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Young men are primarily those making less posts on social media.
1 minute read

Fewer than half of Swedes now regularly share their own posts on social media, shows a new report from the Internet Foundation (Internetstiftelsen), a Swedish internet research organization. At the same time, time spent on open platforms is decreasing – instead, people are increasingly turning to private channels.

In Sweden, the five largest platforms are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn. However, looking at daily usage, LinkedIn is replaced by TikTok, which has become increasingly popular.

In the report “Swedes and the Internet 2025” it shows that fewer and fewer Swedes are posting their own content on the platforms. Only 45 percent regularly share their own posts on social media, which is a decrease of four percentage points compared to last year.

It is primarily young men who are making fewer posts on social media, and the decrease has mainly occurred on Snapchat. Men born in the 1970s have also essentially stopped making their own posts. Women, however, make their own posts to roughly the same extent as the previous year.

The larger the services become, the more they are filled with content that users haven’t asked for. Then you feel more like a consumer than someone who participates and contributes, says Måns Jonasson at the Internet Foundation, to Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT.

Swedes increasingly prefer to be on private platforms instead, such as WhatsApp – which is growing for the third consecutive year. Among children and young people, more use WhatsApp than Facebook Messenger.

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