Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently launched its Wikipedia rival — Grokipedia, which is an AI-generated encyclopaedia. For those unaware, Grokipedia’s content is largely generated or curated by the AI model Grok. Now in a bold public response, Wikipedia the rival of Grokipedia has issued a message to “everyone on the internet,” defending its mission and values as Elon Musk’s newly launched Grokipedia aims to challenge its dominance as the world’s go-to reference platform. Wikipedia emphasised that it is a human-driven platform and it has non-profit roots, which contrasts from Elon Musk’s-backed platform. “After nearly 25 years, Wikipedia is still the internet we were promised—created by people, not by machines,” the note reads. “It’s owned by a non-profit, not a giant technology company or a billionaire.”The message from Wikipedia comes at a time when Elon Musk launched its AI-powered encyclopaedia— Grokipedia. Elon Musk has been a long-time critic of Wikipedia and he has called out the platform for ideological bias and slow editorial processes. Grokipedia on the other hand, boasts of over 885,000 AI-generated articles, many adapted from Wikipedia under Creative Commons licensing.
Human editors vs. AI algorithms
As reported by Business Insider, the note from Wikipedia underscores its reliance on a global network of volunteers who write and edit articles collaboratively. The platform positions itself as transparent and accountable, in contrast to Grokipedia’s automated content generation.“We don’t believe that truth is something you can generate. We believe it’s something you work toward—together,” the message adds.The jab at Musk’s estimated $500 billion net worth and Grokipedia’s corporate backing is unmistakable. While Wikipedia often runs donation campaigns, this particular note has taken on a more defiant tone, signaling a philosophical divide between the two platforms.
Grokipedia’s rocky start
Despite Musk’s claim that Grokipedia will be a “massive improvement” over Wikipedia, early users have flagged factual errors and ideological slants. One entry falsely claimed that former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took on a major role in DOGE after Musk’s departure, despite Ramaswamy having left months earlier.Grok, the AI chatbot behind Grokipedia, has also faced controversy. In July, it shared antisemitic content, including posts praising Adolf Hitler. xAI later apologized, attributing the incident to a flawed code update.
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