Elon Musk on Monday night unveiled “Grokipedia,” an AI-driven online encyclopedia designed to rival Wikipedia — a platform he and his supporters have repeatedly accused of being “biased” and “woke.”
Launch and Core Features
In a post on X, Musk announced that “Version 0.1” of Grokipedia was now live, claiming that while it is still an early build, “even at 0.1 it’s better than Wikipedia.” He added that Version 1.0 would be “10x better.”
At launch, Grokipedia hosts around 885,000 articles, compared to Wikipedia’s 7 million. However, unlike Wikipedia — which relies on volunteer contributors and editors — Grokipedia’s content is entirely generated and fact-checked by xAI’s chatbot, Grok.
The platform also does not allow public edits. Instead, users can ask Grok to add, modify, or delete an article, after which the system will either take action or explain why it cannot.
In a follow-up post, Musk said:
“The goal of Grok and Grokipedia is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We will never be perfect, but we shall nonetheless strive toward that goal.”
Does Grokipedia Include Wikipedia Content?
Several Grokipedia pages include a disclaimer at the bottom stating:
“The content is adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.”
Wikipedia’s own entry on Grokipedia notes that “many articles are derived from Wikipedia articles, with some observed to be copied nearly verbatim.”
As of publication, entries such as those on PlayStation 5, Lamborghini, and AMD appeared almost identical to their Wikipedia counterparts.
Musk acknowledged this overlap in a post, saying he was “aware of Grokipedia using Wikipedia articles” and promised,
“We should have this fixed by end of year.”
Wikimedia Foundation’s Response
In a statement shared with NBC News and The Verge, the Wikimedia Foundation — the non-profit that operates Wikipedia — said:
“Wikipedia’s knowledge is, and always will be, human. This human-created knowledge is what AI companies rely on to generate content; even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist.”
The Foundation added:
“Many experiments to create alternative versions of Wikipedia have happened before; it doesn’t interfere with our work or mission.”
The Bigger Question
Musk’s new venture revives an enduring debate: What role will human-curated knowledge play in an era increasingly dominated by AI-generated content?
As platforms like Grokipedia attempt to mechanize information curation, the question remains — can algorithmic truth ever replace human judgment, or must the two coexist to ensure a balanced future for knowledge itself?
