What is Grokipedia that Elon Musk is set to unveil?

You have no doubt heard of Wikipedia.

Now, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is set to unveil Grokipedia – a potential competitor to Wikipedia. Musk has claimed that the venture, which will be linked to his AI firm xAI, will launch within a matter of weeks.

“Version 0.1 early beta of Grokipedia will be published in 2 weeks,” Musk wrote on X.

The development comes amid Republicans and the far right continuing to take on the mainstream media. Musk, whose net worth touched $500
billion (Rs 44.36 lakh crore) earlier this year, previously claimed that Grokipedia would be a “massive improvement over Wikipedia”.

But what is Grokipedia? What do we know about it?

Let’s take a closer look:

What is it?

Musk retweeted a post from X user @amXFreeze describing Grokipedia as “the world’s largest and most accurate knowledge source, for humans and AI, with no limits on use.”

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The post said Grokipedia would use the power of AI to draw on Wikipedia as well as other sources. However, it would identify falsehoods or half-truths and add in ‘missing context’.

“The reason why it will be the true knowledge source is because it’s built solely for the truth and to navigate to the truth… free from bias or hidden agendas. Elon never does anything by half measures, he dives straight to the full extent," the user claimed.

The user also compared Grokipedia to Community Notes on X. It is important to note that Musk himself and xAI have not confirmed how Grokipedia will work.

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US media landscape continues to change

Conservatives have long targeted mainstream media outlets as ‘biased’ and ‘woke’. Wikipedia, with its vast readership around the world and in the United States, is no different.

Musk and other Republicans have claimed Wikipedia, which is publicly funded and staffed by volunteers, as ‘Wokepedia’. “Wikipedia shapes America,” conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has claimed.

Musk himself accused the website of being an “extension of legacy media propaganda” and called for it to be defunded after Wikipedia editors included the hand gestures Musk made at Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, which many compared to Nazi salutes.

The Trump administration has also targeted Wikipedia’s non-profit tax status, while Republicans in Congress have vowed to investigate Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales, who co-founded Wikipedia, has said “the neutral point of view is non-negotiable” and that most volunteers are “a bunch of really nice nerds.”

Ironically, this comes as the Trump government defunds public outlets such as NPR and PBS. Trump himself has sued a number of legacy media firms such as CBS and ABC and received millions of dollars in payouts – which many have likened to bribes.

Meanwhile, right-wing billionaires over the years have continued to purchase many media outlets in the United States. Musk, of course, famously purchased X prior to the 2024 election and was widely accused of meddling with its algorithm to favour Trump, his preferred presidential candidate, and the Republicans.

Musk also publicly said he would ‘fix’ Grok, only for it to begin spewing far-right and anti-Semitic talking points, denying the Holocaust and even describing itself as ‘mecha Hitler’ – for which he later apologised.

But Musk is far from the only right-wing billionaire who is taking over US media outlets. Oracle chief Larry Ellison recently bought CBS with the merger between Paramount Studios and Skydance Media. Ellison has now installed Bari Weiss, the famously anti-woke media critic and Israeli sympathiser, as its chief.

Ellison is also set to bid for Warner Brothers-Discovery, which owns CNN and HBO – which would leave him a media magnate with the power to influence millions in America and around the world.

Now, Musk wants to create a rival to Wikipedia, a website he once praised, where millions of people, presumably Americans, and many more around the world can get their facts – all seemingly approved by the richest man on the planet.

Let that sink in.

With inputs from agencies