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Grokipedia

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Grokipedia
Home page in October 2025
Type of site
Online encyclopedia, AI-generated
Available inEnglish
Country of originUnited States
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerxAI
URLgrokipedia.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedOctober 27, 2025 (2025-10-27)
Current statusActive
Content license
Some articles under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0

Grokipedia is an AI-generated online encyclopedia developed by xAI. The site was launched on October 27, 2025, under the version 0.1.[1]

Entries in Grokipedia are created and edited by the Grok language model, though the exact process behind its content generation is not known.[2] Many articles are derived from Wikipedia, with some copied nearly verbatim at launch.[3][4][5] Articles cannot be directly edited, though logged-in visitors to the encyclopedia can suggest edits via a pop-up form for reporting wrong information. As of October 28, 2025, the site states that it has over 800,000 articles.

xAI founder Elon Musk positioned Grokipedia as an alternative to Wikipedia that would "purge out the propaganda" in the latter. Shortly after launch, several sources described articles as promoting right-wing perspectives, conspiracy theories, and Elon Musk's personal views. Other criticism of Grokipedia focused on its accuracy and biases due to AI hallucinations and potential algorithmic bias.

Background

Further information: Criticism of Wikipedia and Ideological bias on Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free online multilingual encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers through open collaboration.[6] Wikipedia has been criticized for its alleged political biases since its inception.[7] In 2018, Haaretz noted "Wikipedia has succeeded in being accused of being both too liberal and too conservative, and has critics from across the spectrum".[8]

In a 2017 report from Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Wikipedia was identified as a center-right website, along with RealClearPolitics and National Review.[9] In 2022, Vice News reported, "Researchers have found that Wikipedia has a slight Democratic bias on issues of US politics because many of Wikipedia's editors are international, and the average country has views that are to the left of the Democratic party" on multiple issues.[10] A 2024 study by David Rozado of the Manhattan Institute, using an AI-based analysis, found that Wikipedia's statements about politically right-wing figures in the United States tended to have a more negative sentiment than those for left-wing individuals, with some exceptions.[11][12]

A variety of online encyclopedia projects have launched with the stated goal of correcting Wikipedia's perceived biases. These include Conservapedia, launched in 2006 to counter perceived liberal bias,[13] and Ruwiki, forked in 2023 with content modifications widely described as favoring the Russian government.[14][15][16] xAI is an American AI company founded by Elon Musk in 2023.[17] Its flagship product is the family of large language models called Grok.[18]

History

Disputes between Musk and Wikipedia

Further information: Views of Elon Musk § Wikipedia

In 2021, Musk expressed affection for Wikipedia on its 20th anniversary.[19] In 2022, Musk argued that Wikipedia was "losing its objectivity".[19] In 2023, he said he would donate a billion dollars to the project if it was renamed "Dickipedia".[19]

In December 2024, Musk called for a boycott of donations to Wikipedia over its perceived left-wing bias, calling it "Wokepedia".[20] In January 2025, Musk made a series of statements on X denouncing Wikipedia for its description of the incident where he made a controversial gesture at president Donald Trump's second inauguration.[20] Musk has since positioned Grokipedia as an alternative to Wikipedia that would "purge out the propaganda" in the latter.[21]

Idea and announcement

In September 2025, Musk spoke at the All-In podcast conference with David O. Sacks, the White House advisor on AI and cryptocurrency, about how Grok consumed data from Wikipedia and other sources to gain more complete knowledge of the world. Sacks suggested publishing its knowledge base as an artifact called "Grokipedia", saying "Wikipedia is so biased, it's a constant war."[19]

Following the conversation, Musk announced that xAI was building a new AI-generated online encyclopedia called Grokipedia.[22][23] According to Musk's announcement, it would be an AI-powered knowledge base designed to rival Wikipedia by addressing its perceived biases, errors, and ideological slants.[24] Gizmodo compared the plan to the 2006 Conservapedia project.[25]

Launch

On October 6, 2025, Musk announced that the early version of Grokipedia was scheduled for release later that month.[26][27] The project was postponed briefly in October to address content quality issues.[21] It launched on October 27, 2025, with over 800,000 articles,[21] compared to over seven million English Wikipedia articles as of September 1, 2025.[28] Some articles are nearly identical to their Wikipedia entries, but the format of Grokipedia citations is different.[29][30] On the day of launch, Musk stated on X that "Grokipedia.com is fully open source, so anyone can use it for anything at no cost". Articles attributed to Wikipedia carry a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, but the license of other articles is ambiguous, and no publicly accessible source code repository of the backend has been released as of October 29, 2025.[31]

Reception

Grokipedia's article on Elon Musk

Shortly after launch, The Verge, Forbes and Mashable noted that many Grokipedia articles are nearly identical copies of Wikipedia pages.[3][4][5] Forbes identified the articles on "the PlayStation 5, automaker Lamborghini, and chipmaker AMD" as examples.[4]

Indian popular historian, Hindutva revisionist, and economist Sanjeev Sanyal found several examples of Indian topics where he preferred Grokipedia's content to that of Wikipedia, as the Grokipedia articles were more favorable to the perpetrators of anti-minority violence in India.[32] Creationist website Science & Culture Today praised Grokipedia for presenting intelligent design as a legitimate scientific theory.[33] The Agence France-Presse described several right-wing figures as welcoming the site, including Russian far-right philosopher Aleksander Dugin, who praised the Grokipedia article on him, saying it was better than his article on Wikipedia.[34]

Articles related to topics that Musk has been outspoken on have been noted to align with Musk's personal views on the topics, including gender transition, gender identities, Tesla, Neuralink, and former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.[35][36] The Washington Post highlighted entries that promote right-leaning perspectives or favor Musk's viewpoints.[37] NBC News noted that unlike Musk's Wikipedia article, his Grokipedia entry did not mention his controversial hand gesture made in January 2025, which many viewed as resembling a Nazi salute.[38] Time magazine wrote that the Grokipedia article on Musk sometimes "describes him in rapturous terms while downplaying, or even omitting, several of his controversies". The magazine added that "Grokipedia includes more detailed descriptions of Musk's views, including the idea of a 'woke mind virus,' which Musk claimed 'killed' his estranged transgender daughter, who is alive".[39] The Verge describes Grokipedia articles on Musk and his ventures seem like "airbrush[ed]" versions of their Wikipedia counterparts.[40] Futurism reported that the Grokipedia article on the Tesla Cybertruck included language promoting the Cybertruck and criticizing media coverage of it and Tesla.[41] Mira Fox observed that "Grokipedia has a habit of endorsing Musk's own preferred beliefs".[42]

Wired reported that "The new AI-powered Wikipedia competitor falsely claims that pornography worsened the AIDS epidemic and that social media may be fueling a rise in transgender people."[35] LGBTQ Nation also highlighted how Grokipedia has an article on "HIV/AIDS skepticism" which claims there is legitimate scientific critique that HIV does not cause AIDS.[43] The Verge highlighted other instances of articles that legitimize ideas and conspiracy theories that go against scientific consensus, pointing to topics such as vaccines and autism, COVID-19, race and intelligence, and climate change.[40] Matteo Wong in the The Atlantic noted how in the Grokipedia article on Adolf Hitler, his "rapid economic achievements" are prioritized over events like the Holocaust, and that Grokipedia frames the white genocide conspiracy theory as an event that is occurring.[44] Wong also states that Grokipedia repeatedly cites Kremlin.ru for its article on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[44] The Business Standard noted reviewers found it framed "contested social and political issues through a right-leaning perspective, echoing Musk's personal views", with pages accused of whitewashing extremism or validating debunked conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and the "Great Replacement".[45] Texas-based news site Chron observed that Grokipedia articles often supported their claims by citing "Texas Republican bloggers and advocacy groups", and that Grokipedia's coverage of Texas history tended to minimize the role of slavery.[46]

Meduza compared Grokipedia's coverage to that of the Kremlin-aligned Ruwiki, finding that Grokipedia's treatment of the Russo-Ukrainian war was less overtly propagandistic than Ruwiki's, though it did give more favorable treatment to "Russian propaganda talking points" than Wikipedia did. On the topic of Vladimir Putin, Grokipedia's coverage was "less fawning" than Ruwiki's, though still omitting noteworthy negative information about him. Meduza noted that Grokipedia also omits mention of scandals surrounding Donald Trump, such as his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.[16]

PRWeek speculated on how Grokipedia could affect PR and marketing.[47] Anaïs Nony, a researcher in digital technologies at the University of Johannesburg, argued that Grokipedia seeks to "discredit scientific and collaborative work".[48]

Response from the Wikipedia community

A spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation commented that "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."[3][4] Sociologist and physicist Taha Yasseri argued in The Conversation that the encyclopedia may end up displaying biases just like Wikipedia (though acknowledging that Wikipedia's "infrastructure is designed to make that bias visible and correctable"), since large language models like Grok's reflect the political and other biases of their datasets.[7]

Larry Sanger, co-founder and noted critic of Wikipedia, responded to the launch of Grokipedia saying, "The jury's still out as to whether it's actually better than Wikipedia. But at this point I would have to say 'maybe!'"[49] Sanger also noted that while the Grokipedia article on himself offered correct and interesting content not found in the corresponding Wikipedia article, it also contained errors, including hallucinated statements about Sanger that he said he did "not recognize as applying in any way to myself".[50] Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales commented that the use of large language models would cause Grokipedia to contain "massive errors".[51]

See also

References

  1. ^ Voigt, Eric (October 28, 2025). "Grokipedia: Elon Musk bringt Onlineenzyklopädie an den Start" [Grokipedia: Elon Musk launches online encyclopedia]. Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  2. ^ "Elon Musk launches Grokipedia to compete with online encyclopedia Wikipedia". Associated Press. October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Peters, Jay (October 28, 2025). "Elon Musk's Grokipedia contains copied Wikipedia pages". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d Ray, Siladitya. "Musk Launches 'Grokipedia'—An AI-Generated Wikipedia Challenger". Forbes. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  5. ^ a b Binder, Matt (October 28, 2025). "Elon Musk's Grokipedia is here. A lot of it is just copied directly from Wikipedia". Mashable.
  6. ^ "Wikimedia Projects". Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on October 12, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  7. ^ a b Yasseri, Taha (October 15, 2025). "Grokipedia: Elon Musk is right that Wikipedia is biased, but his AI alternative will be the same at best". The Conversation. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  8. ^ Benjakob, Omer (May 27, 2018). "The Witch Hunt Against a 'pro-Israel' Wikipedia Editor". Haaretz. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  9. ^ Faris, Robert M.; Roberts, Hal; Etling, Bruce; Bourassa, Nikki; Zuckerman, Ethan; Benkler, Yochai (2017). "Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election". Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. ISSN 3375-9251. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2025 – via Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard.
  10. ^ Koebler, Jason; Ongweso Jr, Edward (December 8, 2022). "We Are Watching Elon Musk and His Fans Create a Conspiracy Theory About Wikipedia in Real Time". Vice Media. Archived from the original on May 9, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  11. ^ Thomas, Leah (June 20, 2024). "New Study Finds Political Bias Embedded in Wikipedia Articles". Manhattan Institute (Press release). Retrieved October 31, 2025.
  12. ^ Norton, Jim (November 27, 2024). "'Wikipedia is as biased as the BBC': How the Left took over the platform". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved October 31, 2025.
  13. ^ Anderson, Nate (March 5, 2007). "Conservapedia hopes to "fix" Wikipedia's "liberal bias"". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  14. ^ Corfield, Gareth (July 12, 2023). "Russia launches Wikipedia rival in new censorship crackdown". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  15. ^ Jankowicz, Mia. "Russia has launched its own version of Wikipedia, called Ruwiki, which is notably more sympathetic to Putin". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  16. ^ a b "Grokipedia vs. Ruwiki: Elon Musk's Wikipedia rival uses AI to push its creator's views — something Moscow already tried. Meduza compares the results". Meduza. October 30, 2025.
  17. ^ Hammond, George (July 12, 2023). "Elon Musk launches xAI in challenge to dominance of ChatGPT owner". Financial Times. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  18. ^ Zeff, Maxwell (July 10, 2025). "Elon Musk's xAI launches Grok 4 alongside a $300 monthly subscription". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  19. ^ a b c d Higgins, Tim (October 4, 2025). "Why Conservatives Are Attacking 'Wokepedia'". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 5, 2025. Retrieved October 6, 2025.
  20. ^ a b Leloup, Damien (January 29, 2025). "Why Elon Musk is calling for a boycott of Wikipedia". Le Monde. Archived from the original on August 29, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  21. ^ a b c Conger, Kate (October 27, 2025). "Elon Musk Challenges Wikipedia With His Own A.I. Encyclopedia". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  22. ^ Gupta, Aman (September 30, 2025). "'Grokipedia': Elon Musk says xAI is working on a Wikipedia rival powered by AI". Live Mint. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  23. ^ Gucia, Wiktoria (September 30, 2025). "MAGA Melts Down Over Wikipedia 'Blacklist'". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on October 1, 2025. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  24. ^ Kan, Michael (September 30, 2025). "Elon Musk Plans to Take on Wikipedia With 'Grokipedia'". PCMag. Archived from the original on September 30, 2025. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  25. ^ Novak, Matt (September 30, 2025). "Elon Musk's Wikipedia Competitor Is Going to Be a Disaster". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on October 1, 2025. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
  26. ^ "What Is Grokipedia? Elon Musk To Unveil Wikipedia Competitor In Two Weeks". NDTV. Retrieved October 6, 2025.
  27. ^ "Elon Musk: 'Grokipedia' Arrives Later This Month". PCMag. October 6, 2025. Archived from the original on October 6, 2025. Retrieved October 6, 2025.
  28. ^ "Wikimedia Statistics". Wikimedia. 2025-09-01 7,067,049
  29. ^
  30. ^ Bell, Karissa (October 27, 2025). "X's Grokipedia is online after it briefly crashed out". Engadget. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  31. ^ "Elon Musk launches Grokipedia, says it's truthful, independent and open source". CNBC TV18. October 27, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  32. ^ Sanyal, Sanjeev (October 29, 2025). "Grokipedia vs Wikipedia: Sanjeev Sanyal lists 20 instances of Wiki's 'religious bias', cites Ram Mandir entry among others". Moneycontrol. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  33. ^ O'Leary, Denyse (October 28, 2025). "On Intelligent Design, Wikipedia Hedges, While Grokipedia Tells (Whoa!) the Truth". Science & Culture Today.
  34. ^ "Elon Musk launches Grokipedia to rival 'left-biased' Wikipedia". South China Morning Post. Agence France-Presse. October 29, 2025.
  35. ^ a b Rogers, Reece. "Elon Musk's Grokipedia Pushes Far-Right Talking Points". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  36. ^
  37. ^ Oremus, Will; Siddiqui, Faiz (October 28, 2025). "Elon Musk launches a Wikipedia rival that extols his own 'vision'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  38. ^ Ingram, David (October 28, 2025). "Elon Musk launches Grokipedia as an alternative to 'woke' Wikipedia". NBC News. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  39. ^ Jeyaretnam, Miranda (October 28, 2025). "How Grokipedia Describes Elon Musk". TIME. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  40. ^ a b Hart, Robert; Welle, Elissa (October 29, 2025). "Grokipedia is racist, transphobic, and loves Elon Musk". The Verge. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  41. ^ Landymore, Frank (October 28, 2025). "Grokipedia's Article on the Cybertruck Clearly Shows Why the Whole Project Is Doomed". Futurism. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  42. ^ Fox, Mira (October 31, 2025). "Musk created Grokipedia to counter bias, but it's full of antisemitic and racist dog-whistles". The Forward. Retrieved October 31, 2025.
  43. ^ Collington, Faefyx (October 28, 2025). "Elon Musk debuts far-right, anti-trans clone of Wikipedia called "Grokipedia"". LGBTQ Nation.
  44. ^ a b Wong, Matteo (October 28, 2025). "What Elon Musk's Version of Wikipedia Thinks About Hitler, Putin, and Apartheid". The Atlantic.
  45. ^ "Grokipedia and the new debate over AI, knowledge, and bias". The Business Standard. October 29, 2025. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  46. ^ Howerton, Gwen (October 30, 2025). "Elon Musk's Grokipedia downplays El Paso shooting, promotes Texas secession". Chron.com. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  47. ^ Sparrer, Curtis (October 28, 2025). "Wikipedia has a competitor. Why PR pros should care about Grokipedia". PRWeek. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  48. ^ Rouquette, Pauline (October 30, 2025). "Grokipedia, Elon Musk's challenge to Wikipedia, offers his own version of the truth". France 24.
  49. ^ "Wikipedia founder Larry Sanger gives company a Grokipedia warning; Elon Musk replies: He should..." The Times of India. October 29, 2025. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  50. ^ Baruah, Antara (October 28, 2025). "Is Grokipedia really a neutral Wikipedia? Elon Musk wants you to believe it". ThePrint. Archived from the original on October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  51. ^ Rosenbaum, Eric (October 28, 2025). "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales isn't worried about Elon Musk's Grokipedia: 'Not optimistic he will create anything very useful right now'". CNBC. Retrieved October 29, 2025.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grokipedia.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grokipedia&oldid=1319804700"