Grokipedia launches with 885k AI-written entries; critics flag bias
Elon Musk on Monday launched an early version of Grokipedia — an online encyclopedia powered by his xAI systems and promoted as a “less biased” alternative to Wikipedia. The site briefly crashed after going live, but later reappeared, according to multiple outlets.
At launch, Grokipedia listed about 885,000 AI-written articles, far fewer than Wikipedia’s English-language edition with millions of entries. Reporters at The Washington Post found that several entries echoed Musk’s views and framed contested social issues through a right-leaning lens.
How it differs from Wikipedia
The Post said the site’s design closely mimics Wikipedia but with less transparency and fewer details on sourcing. Musk told followers on X that Grokipedia would “purge out the propaganda.”
CNBC reported Grokipedia appears to be entirely AI-generated, whereas Wikipedia relies on volunteer editors. It said Musk characterized the release as “version 0.1,” saying “version 1.0 will be 10X better.”
Criticism and early errors
The Post highlighted inaccuracies and copied material, including a mistaken claim about a U.S. political figure’s role in a government advisory panel. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told The Post last week he expected “ a lot of errors,” while co-founder Larry Sanger posted examples of factual mistakes.
Wikipedia’s response
A Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson told CNBC the group is assessing Grokipedia and reiterated that Wikipedia’s strength lies in its transparency and “human-created knowledge.” The Times reported that Wales is leading internal work to reinforce a neutral point of view and study potential biases. It said that Wikipedia is facing rising AI scraping even as human visits declined this year.
What’s next
Musk delayed Grokipedia’s debut by a week, saying he wanted to “purge out the propaganda” before release, The Post reports. The encyclopedia is linked to Muske’s Grok chatbot — meaning it can update quickly, but may also repeat the same high-profile AI errors users have flagged before.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
