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Elon Musk’s new AI-powered encyclopedia, Grokipedia, officially went live on Monday — though not without hiccups. The site, created by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, briefly crashed after launch, sparking an immediate flood of curiosity and criticism online before returning hours later.

A New Challenger to Wikipedia

Built on xAI’s large language model Grok, the same system powering the AI chatbot integrated into Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Grokipedia aims to become a “smarter, less biased alternative” to Wikipedia. According to Musk, this initial rollout — labeled “Grokipedia version 0.1” — is just the beginning. He promised a vastly improved “version 1.0” that will be “10 times better.”

Despite its rough start, Grokipedia’s interface resembles Wikipedia’s familiar layout: a dark-themed homepage featuring a central search bar and a counter boasting over 885,000 AI-generated articles. By contrast, English Wikipedia currently hosts more than 7 million human-written entries, maintained by thousands of volunteer editors worldwide.

Musk’s Motivation and Political Overtones

The concept of Grokipedia reportedly emerged after a conversation between Musk and David Sacks, a fellow tech entrepreneur and current AI and cryptocurrency czar in President Donald Trump’s administration. Musk framed the project as part of his broader push against what he calls “woke bias” in mainstream media and technology.

Over the past year, Musk has frequently criticized Wikipedia and its editorial practices, accusing it of political slant and overreliance on outlets such as The New York Times and NPR. He’s also publicly clashed with the Wikimedia Foundation, calling for a more “open and transparent” approach to information sharing.

However, early users quickly noticed that Grokipedia often cites Wikipedia itself as a source — a paradox that critics say undermines Musk’s claims of independence.

Technical Woes and Early Reception

Shortly after its debut, Grokipedia.com went offline for several hours, according to data preserved on the Wayback Machine. The downtime coincided with a surge of online interest, with millions of users attempting to test the AI encyclopedia simultaneously.

Once restored, visitors found an early-stage platform that blended factual summaries with xAI’s conversational tone. While Musk declared Grokipedia “already better than Wikipedia,” early users noted inconsistencies, factual errors, and repeated sourcing from existing online databases.

The Debate Over Bias and AI

The Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees Wikipedia, responded diplomatically. In a statement shared with major outlets, the organization emphasized that “Wikipedia’s strength lies in its transparency, community oversight, and continuous human collaboration.”

The foundation added, “Unlike newer AI projects, Wikipedia’s knowledge is — and always will be — human. AI companies, including Grokipedia, depend on that human-created content to generate their own.”

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told reporters last week that he remains skeptical about Grokipedia’s prospects, citing the limitations of current AI models. “There will be a lot of errors,” he said, predicting that large language models are still too inconsistent to manage an encyclopedia.

Interestingly, Larry Sanger, another Wikipedia co-founder who left the organization in 2002, initially expressed enthusiasm about alternative projects. But after examining Grokipedia post-launch, Sanger published a detailed thread outlining what he called “serious inaccuracies and superficiality” across many entries.

Musk’s “Anti-Woke” AI Vision

Grokipedia extends Musk’s growing effort to reshape the AI and information ecosystem. The xAI model Grok is already integrated into X Premium subscriptions, marketed as an “anti-woke” chatbot designed to offer humor, spontaneity, and fewer restrictions than competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Musk has described Grok as “a rebellious AI that answers questions with wit and honesty.” His aim, he says, is to build tools that promote “free thought and factual clarity,” particularly in an era when AI models are being increasingly criticized for political or cultural bias.

The Bigger Picture

The launch of Grokipedia comes amid a wave of AI-driven content platforms attempting to challenge traditional, human-curated sources of information. Tech analysts estimate that xAI’s data processing infrastructure — powered by Nvidia’s H100 and Blackwell GPUs — supports over 100 billion parameters, enabling Grok to rapidly generate summaries on millions of topics.

Still, industry experts warn that automated encyclopedias face a fundamental credibility challenge: users often demand verifiable sources, context, and accountability — all of which remain difficult for AI systems to replicate at human standards.

As Grokipedia grows, it will likely face pressure to balance speed and accuracy while navigating questions of political neutrality and reliability. For now, Musk’s latest AI venture represents both an ambitious technological experiment and a bold ideological statement — one that could redefine how information is created, shared, and trusted in the digital age.