It’s been two days since Elon Musk launched yet another platform promising to “fix what’s broken,” this time, Wikipedia. First teased in late September 2025, Grokipedia is Musk’s new “truth engine,” built by his xAI team and described as “a massive improvement over Wikipedia” and “a step toward understanding the universe.”
The site went live this week with just under a million AI-written articles and one bold claim: to deliver “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” But truth, especially online, isn’t something you can code into being. While Musk insists Grokipedia will correct Wikipedia’s “left bias,” early users say it looks more like a filtered remake of the same thing, only through the lens of Musk’s worldview.
Once a vocal fan of Wikipedia, Musk has since labelled it “Wokepedia” and accused it of liberal bias. That shift seems less about accuracy and more about ideology. As one media scholar noted, the project feels driven by a cultural mission rather than a commercial one.
Still, whether Grokipedia becomes a true alternative or just another Musk experiment remains to be seen. For now, let’s leave the big questions aside and break down everything we know and don’t know about this so-called “truth engine.”
What we do know
Before you get lost in the noise, here’s what the new ‘pedia’ really looks like so far:
Click to Read More It’s in the beta phase
Grokipedia is still in its early stage, officially tagged version 0.1 on its homepage, with Musk promising that “version 1.0 will be 10× better.” Despite being described as open source, the presence of a closed AI fact-checker means it isn’t fully open yet. The site, which went live on Monday, briefly struggled with accessibility, as expected for a first rollout.
Condia was able to load the homepage shortly before 11:30 p.m. WAT and view an entry on “startup culture.” Its minimalist dark interface features a Wikipedia-style font, a simple search bar, and about 885,279 logged articles so far.
It’s still an AI-filtered Wikipedia
Despite Musk’s promise of a fresh start, Grokipedia is still largely built on Wikipedia’s backbone. Most entries are rewrites of existing pages processed through xAI’s language models, and even the layout—headings, citations, and references—looks instantly familiar. Some articles are almost word-for-word copies, and Grokipedia even acknowledges Wikipedia as a source at the bottom of certain pages.
Musk is aware of how dependent the platform currently is and has said he wants Grok to stop using Wikipedia pages as sources by the end of the year.
It’s also true that Wikipedia can feel cluttered, especially for casual readers. Grokipedia’s interface is much cleaner and easier to use, with quick search suggestions and minimal distractions that make exploring content smoother. But beyond the design upgrade, the content underneath still reads like repackaged Wikipedia. For now, Grokipedia isn’t replacing Wikipedia.
It’s the Grok in Grokipedia
We know Musk’s pitch: Grokipedia will be “less biased” and more transparent. It runs on X’s infrastructure, is integrated with Grok, xAI’s conversational chatbot, and is designed to be editable. In theory, that means users can refine content in real time, though how edits are reviewed or approved still feels a bit undefined.
One clever touch is the Grok integration itself. You can highlight any part of an article and ask for instant explanations, right where you’re reading. It’s a smooth, almost ChatGPT-like experience that makes information feel interactive rather than static.
Whether that interactivity deepens understanding or just filters everything through yet another AI lens is still open to question—but it does make Grokipedia feel different from the traditional, community-edited web we know.
Grokipedia glosses over power keg issues
Early comparisons show that Grokipedia tends to soften or sidestep widely accepted scientific positions. On topics like vaccines, Apartheid, and even the January 6th Capitol attack, its language trades scientific clarity for ambiguity, turning established facts into “hypotheses” or “debates.”
Where Wikipedia firmly states global consensus on issues such as vaccine safety or human-driven climate change, Grokipedia reframes them through a lens of “controversy” or “public alarm.” The result feels less like a knowledge base and more like a platform that blurs the line between evidence and opinion, particularly on topics that already attract misinformation.
Everything we still don’t know about Grokepedia
A lot still isn’t clear:
If it will remain free
Grokipedia is being framed as a free knowledge platform, but behind the scenes, it sits within the commercial ecosystem of xAI and Elon Musk’s broader ventures (Grok, X Corp,Tesla and Starlink.) At launch, Grokipedia allows free access to its article database.
That said, no full monetisation roadmap has been publicly shared. There are indications of subscription-tier prompts, usage caps, or premium features on related products, which raises the question: will “free” remain the baseline?
Given Musk’s track record of commercialising his tech platforms, it’s reasonable to ask whether Grokipedia will eventually become a paid service, a data-harvester, or a freemium funnel for something larger.
If this will end the Musk–Wales feud
Musk and Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales have a long-running online rivalry that seems far from over. Their clashes date back to Musk’s decision to restrict content on X (formerly Twitter) in Turkey and continued after Musk mocked Wikipedia, offering $1 billion if it renamed itself “Dickipedia.”
In a recent New York Times interview, Wales said he doesn’t expect much from Grokipedia, noting that large language models “do a passable job” but remain “deeply flawed.” He added that while Musk can be respectful in private, his public persona often undermines trust—“people don’t equal money,” Wales said, suggesting that credibility can’t be bought.
So far, it’s unclear whether Grokipedia will challenge Wikipedia’s dominance or simply fuel another round in the Musk–Wales rivalry.
How information is fact-checked
Wikipedia depends on a network of human editors who review, dispute, and refine articles openly. Grokipedia works differently. Its editing seems AI-guided: users can suggest changes through a form, and an xAI model evaluates those submissions for consistency or bias before updates go live.
Still, it’s unclear who sets the standards. There’s no visible list of editors, no clear disclosure of sources, and no explanation of how “truth” is defined. Unlike Wikipedia’s community-driven checks and debates, Grokipedia’s version of accuracy appears to rest entirely on its algorithms.
Who the target user is
It’s still unclear who Grokipedia is really built for. Outside the West, many may not even care to switch; Wikipedia already commands trust, a global community of editors, and decades of multilingual content. Grokipedia, by contrast, has Musk, an AI model, and a lot of unanswered questions.
For a continent that relies on open information, from students to fintech founders, that uncertainty is risky. If Grokipedia gains traction but remains opaque, it could quietly redefine what’s seen as “fact” without much scrutiny.
Some observers say it’s meant for “high-IQ” users: people who think in first principles or crave deeper reasoning. Others see it as an encyclopedia for everyone, not an elitist vault of curated truths. Whether it can balance both visions is what remains to be seen.
What comes next
Grokipedia sits at an interesting crossroads, part experiment, part statement about who controls information online. It mirrors the larger trend of tech giants crossing into one another’s territories, from AI to space to media. The question is no longer who builds the tools, but whose worldview they quietly encode.
For now, Grokipedia remains web-only, with no mobile app announced. Like most early-stage platforms, it’s still finding its footing—somewhere between open knowledge and algorithmic curation. Whether it becomes a genuine alternative or just another corporate echo will depend on how transparent it chooses to be next.
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