Elon Musk, never one to shy away from a public feud or a new frontier, has now set his sights on one of the internet's most trusted resources: Wikipedia. On October 27, 2025, Musk and his artificial intelligence company xAI officially launched Grokipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopedia positioned as a direct competitor to Wikipedia. The announcement was met with a mix of curiosity, skepticism, and no small amount of controversy, as Grokipedia immediately drew attention for its approach to neutrality, sourcing, and the framing of sensitive historical and political topics.
Grokipedia’s launch was anything but subtle. According to The Forward, the platform debuted with an entry on Adolf Hitler that, in its original version, neglected to mention the Holocaust or Jews in the opening paragraph. Instead, Hitler was described simply as an “Austrian-born German politician” who seized power “through legal means and subsequent purges.” While the facts were technically accurate, critics argued that the omission of the Holocaust from the outset misrepresented Hitler’s historical significance. By the end of the week, Grokipedia had updated the entry to reference the Holocaust in the opening paragraph, but the initial framing had already ignited debate about the platform’s editorial choices and priorities.
The editorial slant evident in the Hitler entry was not an isolated incident. Grokipedia’s article on apartheid, for example, highlighted the era’s economic growth in South Africa before later noting the “stark disparities” between Black and white citizens. Similarly, the entry on Zionism placed blame for the majority of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Arab leaders, citing an article that actually critiqued that viewpoint. The Forward reported that Grokipedia’s approach to controversial topics often involved lengthy arguments in favor of positions Musk has publicly supported, while counterarguments and criticisms appeared much later—and sometimes undermined themselves by presenting contradictory evidence.
Musk himself has been vocal about his motivation for launching Grokipedia. He has repeatedly accused Wikipedia of bias, labeling it “Wokepedia” and criticizing its editorial standards, particularly its refusal to accept certain right-wing outlets as reliable sources. Grokipedia, by contrast, is built on an AI model that draws from viral social media posts as well as more traditional sources like newspapers and academic research. However, the platform’s reliance on AI for fact-checking and content creation has raised questions about accuracy and reliability. As Hi-Tech.ua noted, Grokipedia currently operates with looser rules and lacks strict requirements for references, a sharp departure from Wikipedia’s insistence on verifiable citations.
At present, Grokipedia boasts a database of roughly 885,000 articles, all in English, and is accessible for free via browser in its beta version v0.1. Editing articles is not yet possible; while some entries display an edit button, it remains non-functional. This lack of open editing—one of Wikipedia’s core strengths—means that only Musk and his team can determine what constitutes neutrality on the platform. As The Forward pointed out, this centralized control is both the source of Grokipedia’s bias and, ironically, a safeguard against the chaos of unchecked edits. Many of Grokipedia’s articles are substantially longer than their Wikipedia counterparts, raising the question of how many users will actually wade through the sprawling content.
Despite its claims of originality, Grokipedia has been called out for duplicating Wikipedia’s content with minimal changes. Journalists from The Verge and Hi-Tech.ua found that articles on topics such as the MacBook Air, PlayStation 5, and Lincoln Mark VIII were nearly identical to their Wikipedia versions, sometimes even explicitly stating that the content was adapted from Wikipedia. This practice has fueled skepticism about Grokipedia’s promise of a fresh, unbiased perspective. As The Onion wryly observed, some users joked that “Grokipedia says it came out before Wikipedia,” while others welcomed what they saw as a long-overdue “right-wing take” on even the most innocuous topics.
The broader context for Grokipedia’s launch is a shifting landscape in online information. Wikipedia, founded in 2001, was initially met with skepticism over its crowdsourced model, but over the years it has become one of the world’s most trusted and popular websites. A YouGov survey in the UK found that 64% of respondents trusted Wikipedia “a great deal” or “a fair amount,” surpassing even venerable institutions like the BBC and The Times. A 2019 survey across five countries reported trust levels of 78% or higher. Wikipedia’s credibility, according to Fast Company, is rooted in its robust internal debate structure and the contributions of thousands of editors worldwide.
Yet, as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into search engines and information platforms, Wikipedia faces new challenges. AI-generated summaries in Google searches, for example, are reportedly siphoning off some of Wikipedia’s traffic, which could impact its funding and volunteer base. Grokipedia, with its AI-driven approach, represents both a challenge and a case study in the potential pitfalls of automated knowledge curation.
Wikipedia’s cofounder, Jimmy Wales, remains unfazed by Musk’s provocations. Speaking to The New York Times about his new book, Wales remarked, “We’ll be here in a hundred years and he won’t. As long as we stay Wikipedia, people will still love us.” Wales also noted that attacks from high-profile critics like Musk often result in increased donations and support for Wikipedia, as users rally to defend the platform’s reputation for neutrality and accuracy.
Despite these reassurances, the emergence of Grokipedia has reignited debates over bias, reliability, and the role of technology in shaping public understanding. Reports from Wired and The Atlantic have accused Grokipedia of pushing far-right talking points on issues like gender and omitting unflattering details about Musk himself. The lack of transparency about how Grokipedia’s entries are generated—presumably by the Grok chatbot, working off Wikipedia entries in many cases—has done little to quell suspicions.
For now, Grokipedia’s greatest impact may be as a mirror reflecting the anxieties and divisions of the digital age. Its existence underscores the challenges of achieving true neutrality in a polarized world, especially when the definition of "truth" itself is up for debate. As the dust settles from its headline-grabbing debut, the real test for Grokipedia will be whether it can earn the trust and engagement of users—or whether it will remain, as some critics suggest, a “bland knockoff” lacking the human touch and collective wisdom that made Wikipedia a household name.
In the end, the battle between Grokipedia and Wikipedia is about more than just facts and footnotes; it’s a contest over who gets to frame the narrative in an era where information is both more accessible and more contested than ever before.
