INSEAD, The Business School for the World, today announced the launch of Botipedia, the world’s largest encyclopaedic knowledge portal.
Encyclopaedias have come a long way, from the printed editions of the 1800s and CD ROMs in the 1990s, to today’s online crowd-edited Wikipedia. So, what’s next?
Powered by proprietary AI, Botipedia leverages hundreds of algorithms to mimic the work of legions of humans to create Wikipedia entries. Every entry is processed by the Dynamic Multi-method Generation (DMG) technique, backed by unique datasets consisting of a vast curated library of archives and satellite feeds that provide high quality, verifiable data. Botipedia directly quotes reliable sources or fully generates original content using natural language generation techniques that are designed to avoid hallucination or intrinsic biases.
In Botipedia, no subject, event, language or geography is too obscure to merit an article. While Wikipedia has some 64 million English articles, Botipedia generates over “400 billion” entries in over 100 languages.
“We are creating Botipedia to provide everyone with equal access to information, with no language left behind,” says Phil Parker, INSEAD Chaired Professor of Management Science, creator of Botipedia and holder of one of the pioneering patents in the field of generative AI. “We focus on content grounded in data and sources with full provenance, allowing the user to see as many perspectives as possible, as opposed to one potentially biased source.
According to Parker, Botipedia is an "upstream tool" allowing new encyclopaedic initiatives to quickly find relevant content to all possible subjects, no matter how obscure the topic or language.
Botipedia’s technology does not limit itself to large language models (LLMs) or similar generative methods. Rather, each form of output relies on a customised method. For example, text or tables relating to weather, are generated for all possible longitudes and latitudes using geo-spatial methods. This approach has the advantage of dramatically increasing both the quantity and the accuracy of content available.
Botipedia enables users to find the materials they need to create new or updated articles faster, especially across underserved languages. In Wikipedia for example, there are 7 million articles in English but only 40,000 in Swahili. This limits Swahili speakers’ access to over 99 percent of Wikipedia’s content. Botipedia’s use of DMG has a secondary benefit of being more sustainable, operating at a fraction of the processing power compared to GPU-intensive methodologies, such as ChatGPT.
“Botipedia is one of many initiatives of the Human and Machine Intelligence Institute (HUMII) that we are establishing at INSEAD,” says Lily Fang, Dean of Research and Innovation at INSEAD. “It is a practical application that builds on INSEAD-linked IP to help people make better decisions with knowledge powered by technology. We want technologies that enhance the quality and meaning of our work and life, to retain human agency and value in the age of intelligence.”
Currently in Beta.05, Botipedia was launched during the AI Forum Americas at the INSEAD Hub for Business Innovation, San Francisco. Currently accessible via invitation only, and for those with emails to education organisations, full public access is set to follow. To request access, visit here.
Demo video:
