Elon Musk's Grokipedia launches, filled to the brim with plagiarism and AI slop
(2025/10/28)
- Reference: 1761669194
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/28/elon_musks_grokipedia_launches/
- Source link:
What do you do if you're the richest man on Earth and don't like Wikipedia? Start your own imitation encyclopedia, call it Grokipedia, lift a bunch of pages from the site, and let AI fill in the rest. Obviously, that's a recipe for success.
Musk [1]announced the launch of Grokipedia "version 0.1" on X Monday evening, qualifying any potential failures on the site as likely to be improved when version 1.0 eventually rolls around, "but even at 0.1 it's better than Wikipedia imo," the X-man opined.
Unfortunately for Musk, it's hard to be better than Wikipedia when many of its 885,279 articles (around 12 percent of the English language Wikipedia's 7.08 million) are derived directly from Wikipedia pages.
[2]
As pointed out by several commenters on Musk's X post, the phrase "The content is adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons" appears at the bottom of a number of Grokipedia pages. A Google site search of Grokipedia for pages [3]containing that phrase returns several hits, and it's not an exhaustive list by any means, as several pages that show the phrase (MacBook Air, Crop Circle, etc.) don't appear in Google results.
[4]
[5]
Beyond that, as The Verge [6]points out , there are multiple pages that appear copied verbatim from their Wikipedia equivalents, which led Wikipedia to tell the publication that "even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist."
We reached out to Wikimedia, but didn't hear back.
Then there's the AI slop
Beyond simply copying content from Wikipedia, Grokipedia appears heavily dependent on using AI to generate slop pages that even its namesake AI bot isn't convinced are a fair representation of the facts.
[7]Asking Grok to point out logical fallacies in Grokipedia's page about Wikipedia, for example, leads Musk's own AI to say that Grokipedia was "cherry-picking evidence" about Wikipedia to amplify claims that Wikipedia had a left-wing bias, as Musk has [8]claimed in the past.
[9]Elon Musk's Grok chatbot posts Mein Kampf 2.0 in now-deleted X rant
[10]xAI's Grok has no place in US federal government, say advocacy groups
[11]AI that once called itself MechaHitler will now be available to the US government for $0.42
[12]xAI's Grok lurches into right-wing insanity, offers tips on assaulting man
"The page is factually dense and cites sources ... but it exhibits biases through selective presentation of evidence and heavy reliance on a single critical voice, creating an unbalanced critical lens," Grok explained in response to our query. "The overall framing appeals to concerns about 'ideological capture,' potentially evoking emotional responses from readers skeptical of 'woke' institutions."
In short, it's an AI slop machine that's less neutral in its presentation of facts than it is willing to endorse Musk's personal views - and that's after its launch was delayed by a week in order to, in [13]Musk's words , "purge out the propaganda."
[14]
But you don't need to take The Register 's word as to whether Grokipedia is a fair and unbiased source of information: Even Elon Musk's own AI chatbot doesn't think it is.
"Grokipedia is not a fair and unbiased source of information—at least not in the neutral, encyclopedic sense that Wikipedia aspires to," Grok told us when asked whether Grokipedia was trustworthy.
"It's a critique wearing encyclopedia clothing," the bot said. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1982983035906842651
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=6b0b75a31f80727a&q=site:grokipedia.com+this+content+is+adapted+from+wikipedia&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi39tCSj8eQAxW5DHkGHaZmCNIQgwN6BAgSEAE&biw=754&bih=823&dpr=2
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theverge.com/news/807686/elon-musk-grokipedia-launch-wikipedia-xai-copied
[7] https://x.com/i/grok/share/xPRaEYzGkul2gv9Dr6kjdwe9m
[8] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1849639215199650279
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/grok_nazi/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/xais_grok_has_no_place/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/grokai_servces_us_government/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/14/musk_opinion_piece/
[13] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1980340232194257090
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Musk [1]announced the launch of Grokipedia "version 0.1" on X Monday evening, qualifying any potential failures on the site as likely to be improved when version 1.0 eventually rolls around, "but even at 0.1 it's better than Wikipedia imo," the X-man opined.
Unfortunately for Musk, it's hard to be better than Wikipedia when many of its 885,279 articles (around 12 percent of the English language Wikipedia's 7.08 million) are derived directly from Wikipedia pages.
[2]
As pointed out by several commenters on Musk's X post, the phrase "The content is adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons" appears at the bottom of a number of Grokipedia pages. A Google site search of Grokipedia for pages [3]containing that phrase returns several hits, and it's not an exhaustive list by any means, as several pages that show the phrase (MacBook Air, Crop Circle, etc.) don't appear in Google results.
[4]
[5]
Beyond that, as The Verge [6]points out , there are multiple pages that appear copied verbatim from their Wikipedia equivalents, which led Wikipedia to tell the publication that "even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist."
We reached out to Wikimedia, but didn't hear back.
Then there's the AI slop
Beyond simply copying content from Wikipedia, Grokipedia appears heavily dependent on using AI to generate slop pages that even its namesake AI bot isn't convinced are a fair representation of the facts.
[7]Asking Grok to point out logical fallacies in Grokipedia's page about Wikipedia, for example, leads Musk's own AI to say that Grokipedia was "cherry-picking evidence" about Wikipedia to amplify claims that Wikipedia had a left-wing bias, as Musk has [8]claimed in the past.
[9]Elon Musk's Grok chatbot posts Mein Kampf 2.0 in now-deleted X rant
[10]xAI's Grok has no place in US federal government, say advocacy groups
[11]AI that once called itself MechaHitler will now be available to the US government for $0.42
[12]xAI's Grok lurches into right-wing insanity, offers tips on assaulting man
"The page is factually dense and cites sources ... but it exhibits biases through selective presentation of evidence and heavy reliance on a single critical voice, creating an unbalanced critical lens," Grok explained in response to our query. "The overall framing appeals to concerns about 'ideological capture,' potentially evoking emotional responses from readers skeptical of 'woke' institutions."
In short, it's an AI slop machine that's less neutral in its presentation of facts than it is willing to endorse Musk's personal views - and that's after its launch was delayed by a week in order to, in [13]Musk's words , "purge out the propaganda."
[14]
But you don't need to take The Register 's word as to whether Grokipedia is a fair and unbiased source of information: Even Elon Musk's own AI chatbot doesn't think it is.
"Grokipedia is not a fair and unbiased source of information—at least not in the neutral, encyclopedic sense that Wikipedia aspires to," Grok told us when asked whether Grokipedia was trustworthy.
"It's a critique wearing encyclopedia clothing," the bot said. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1982983035906842651
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=6b0b75a31f80727a&q=site:grokipedia.com+this+content+is+adapted+from+wikipedia&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi39tCSj8eQAxW5DHkGHaZmCNIQgwN6BAgSEAE&biw=754&bih=823&dpr=2
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theverge.com/news/807686/elon-musk-grokipedia-launch-wikipedia-xai-copied
[7] https://x.com/i/grok/share/xPRaEYzGkul2gv9Dr6kjdwe9m
[8] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1849639215199650279
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/grok_nazi/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/xais_grok_has_no_place/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/grokai_servces_us_government/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/14/musk_opinion_piece/
[13] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1980340232194257090
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQD2pyQViTQoRAj5W4WnuwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
If you right shift Grokipedia by Wikipedia as you did in your post because you don't quite know your mathematical symbols you'll get 0 because Grokipedia is a very small number, almost but not quite as small as Musk's... time spent studying before dropping out of university (2), and Wikipedia is a far bigger number.
Muckipedia
Fruit and Nutcase
Or Muskipedia
Re: Muckipedia
steelpillow
Grottipedia
Expedia
Fruit and Nutcase
Wonder if he approached Expedia to buy the name and domains
ROTFL
steelpillow
Not the first to get the hump over Wikipedia's editorial practices and fire up an aspirational "better than" to show how it should be done, won't be the last. The ones that don't soon fade away just barely sputter on in the background.
It's all down to the open and democratic consensus-building which lies at the heart of the Wikipedia ethos - and hence the way the MediaWiki software works.
It's surprising how many people cannot bear the idea of losing editorial control, passionately believe that Wikipedia "ought" to say what they want it to say, and regard us Wikipedians as the attached icon. I tell them to go away and build their own, which makes them hate me even more.
Grokipedia >> Wikipedia.