What is Grokipedia? Elon Musk's latest competitor that 'looks just like Wikipedia'

Elon Musk has unveiled his latest venture, Grokipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopedia designed to rival the original giant, Wikipedia. But it didn’t take long for users to notice the not-so-subtle similarities.

Musk announced the launch on X/Twitter, describing Grokipedia’s mission as sharing the "truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

So, what exactly is Grokipedia?

In short, think Wikipedia, especially when it comes to looks. As one netizen suggested: "Grokipedia rips off directly from Wikipedia, word for word, formatting, structure, the whole thing."

While Wikipedia is written and edited by volunteers, Grokipedia reportedly draws on the same xAI model that powers Musk’s Grok chatbot.

At the time of writing, Grokipedia lists 885,279 articles, compared with Wikipedia’s 7 million-plus in English alone.

Social media users have been quick to weigh in. One wrote: "Narcissistic conspiracy theorist and billionaire launches online encyclopedia because Wikipedia is not right-wing (too fact-based) for him and calls it ‘Grokipedia’ would have been a funny Simpsons episode 10 years ago. Now it’s just sad."

Another added: "As I have said, Grokipedia is exactly what you would expect it to be. Musk is trying to control what information and disinformation you get, and to push the world further to the right."

Others pointed to how closely it mirrors its predecessor: "Grokipedia is literally just = Wikipedia (Copy Paste) + Rename + Minor Changes + Elon’s Agenda."

One person pointed to a meme, humouring how it's made Grokipedia users look like "a bunch of brainwashed sheep".

Meanwhile, another user claimed to have tried a mini experiment on Musk's Grok, calling the outcome "embarrassing".

The San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, said on Tuesday it is "still in the process of understanding how Grokipedia works."

"This human-created knowledge is what AI companies rely on to generate content; even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist," the foundation added.

It continued: "Unlike newer projects, Wikipedia’s strengths are clear: it has transparent policies, rigorous volunteer oversight, and a strong culture of continuous improvement. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, written to inform billions of readers without promoting a particular point of view."

Indy100 reached out to Grok for comment

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