The launch, however, came after a brief delay, with Musk explaining that the team needed additional time to 'purge out the propaganda.'
At its initial release, GrokPedia featured over 885,000 articles, though technical issues caused the site to briefly go offline. The platform returned later the same day, showcasing a dark-themed homepage with a single search bar and font styling reminiscent of both Wikipedia and the Grok chatbot.
Labeled as 'version v0.1,' the site is still in early beta, with a significant gap compared to Wikipedia's more than seven million English-language articles.
Unlike Wikipedia, GrokPedia is entirely AI-driven. Content is managed and fact-checked by Grok rather than edited by users. Corrections can only be suggested through a form, which the system then reviews.
Each entry includes subheadings and citations, reflecting Wikipedia's familiar structure. Much of GrokPedia's content is adapted from Wikipedia itself under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, allowing reuse with proper credit.
Lauren Dickinson, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, said, 'Wikipedia's knowledge is and always will be human. Through open collaboration and consensus, people from all backgrounds build a neutral, living record of human understanding… even GrokPedia needs Wikipedia to exist.'
Musk's motivation
Musk has long accused Wikipedia of holding a left-wing bias, claiming the platform gives unfair treatment to conservative viewpoints and relies heavily on liberal-leaning sources. In 2019, he called his own Wikipedia page a 'war zone with a zillion edits' on X. Earlier this year, he urged followers to 'defund Wikipedia until balance is restored.'
In September, Musk described GrokPedia as a 'massive improvement over Wikipedia' and 'a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.'
The launch follows Musk's pattern of creating alternatives to mainstream platforms he perceives as politically slanted. Notably, Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia's cofounders, voiced support for GrokPedia's creation.
How GrokPedia differs from Wikipedia
Unlike Wikipedia, which relies on volunteers to edit and discuss entries, GrokPedia limits public editing to suggested corrections. While this is intended to reduce misinformation, it may slow updates to fast-changing topics.
As of the beta release, the platform lists under 900,000 entries, roughly an eighth of Wikipedia's English total. Musk has stated that the AI will rapidly expand the database, though the project remains in early testing.
GrokPedia also highlights ideological differences. Users have noted stark contrasts in entries on politically and socially sensitive topics. For example, the AI entry on George Floyd positions him as an 'American man with a lengthy criminal record,' while Wikipedia describes him as 'an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest.'
Critics argue that GrokPedia, rather than eliminating bias, appears to replace Wikipedia's perceived left-leaning bias with a more conservative or 'anti-woke' perspective. Controversial topics such as transgender issues, U.S. slavery, and Musk's own biography have sparked debate over content framing and ideological slant.
AI limitations and plagiarism concerns
Despite Musk positioning GrokPedia as a rival to Wikipedia, early analysis revealed instances of content nearly identical to Wikipedia, with only minor adaptations and a disclaimer noting its source. The AI model, like any large language model, is prone to hallucinations.
Additionally, GrokPedia lacks Wikipedia's open editing history and decentralised moderation, making independent verification of information difficult. Critics argue that the AI-driven approach, intended to eliminate human bias, may instead reflect the ideological views of its creator and the training data used.
While GrokPedia remains in beta, Musk touts it as 'the world's largest and most accurate knowledge source without centralised control.' It aims to serve both human readers and artificial intelligence models. Whether GrokPedia will evolve into a credible alternative to Wikipedia or remain a controversial, AI-driven encyclopedia will depend on how its content, bias, and reliability are addressed in the coming months.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
