Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has launched Grokipedia, a new online encyclopedia designed to compete with Wikipedia, which the billionaire has long accused of political bias.
The site, branded version 0.1, went live on Monday with more than 885,000 articles — far fewer than Wikipedia’s seven million English-language entries, but already drawing global attention. Musk promised an upgraded version 1.0 would be “10X better,” declaring that Grokipedia already surpasses its established rival.
“The goal of Grok and Grokipedia.com is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Musk wrote on X, pledging to avoid ideological slant.
Originally set for release in September, Grokipedia was delayed to “purge out the propaganda,” according to Musk. The entrepreneur, who has often criticised Wikipedia for being “controlled by far-left activists,” insists his platform will prioritise factual accuracy powered by AI and the generative assistant Grok.
A Grokipedia entry about Musk describes him as influencing debates on “technological progress, demographic decline, and institutional biases,” while noting “systemic left-leaning tilts” in media coverage.
By contrast, Wikipedia founded in 2001 and maintained by volunteers, maintains a “neutral point of view” and relies largely on donations to remain free.
Wikipedia traffic dips amid AI rise
In a related development, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) reported an 8% decline in human pageviews on Wikipedia compared to last year. The organisation linked the drop to generative AI tools and evolving search habits that deliver information directly to users without visiting source pages.
Marshall Miller, WMF’s Senior Director of Product, said the change reflects how AI is reshaping online information discovery, noting that many search results now quote Wikipedia content without crediting or directing traffic back to the site.
The decline also followed updates to WMF’s bot detection system, which reclassified certain visits previously mistaken for human traffic.
