Elon Musk’s Grokipedia Vs. Wikipedia on 5 Topics

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia promises to be a “massive improvement over Wikipedia.” How do the two compare?

On Monday afternoon, Grokipedia.com went live. Musk did not immediately claim ownership of the site, but its X account was linked to xAI, Musk’s AI venture. The site’s landing page listed 885,279 articles, calling it v0.1.

“The goal here is to create an open source, comprehensive collection of all knowledge,” said Musk, who later confirmed the domain.

Business Insider examined Grokipedia’s pages about some of the most contentious issues and events, from January 6 and Gamergate to Donald Trump.

Here’s how it compares to Wikipedia.

January 6

Both Grokipedia and Wikipedia call January 6 a “riot.” Beyond that, the two entries are widely different.

The second sentence of Grokipedia’s entry references “widespread claims of voting irregularities.” The Wikipedia references these claims, but repeatedly calls them “false.” The Wikipedia entry calls Rudy Giuliani’s claims of rigged voting machines “conspiracy theories.”

Grokipedia:

Wikipedia:

Wikipedia’s opening references “many people” being injured, before focusing on 174 police officer injuries and the later suicides of four officers. Grokipedia, on the other hand, first references harm with the death of rioter Ashli Babbitt.

Between the “legal proceedings” and the “aftermath,” Grokipedia has an entire section on the “controversies.” The section includes coverage of allegations that the riot was orchestrated by the FBI, questioning of the event’s characterization as an “armed insurrection,” and criticism of the media.

Grokipedia: 7,627 words.

Wikipedia: 19,837 words.

OpenAI

It’s no secret that Elon Musk has a contentious relationship with OpenAI. He cofounded the company and invested in it before leaving and founding his own venture, xAI. He’s also sued OpenAI multiple times.

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Musk’s lawsuits are prominently placed in the Grokipedia entry, featured in the last sentence of the introduction. On Wikipedia, the suits are mentioned five paragraphs into a section on “corporate structure.”

Grokipedia:

Wikipedia:

Grokipedia’s entry leaned more toward politics. It referenced a Manhattan Institute study that indicated OpenAI moderated more hate speech directed toward liberals than conservatives, and a Substacker who wrote that content involving white and conservative identities was more harshly moderated.

It wasn’t all conservative-favoring, though. Later, the page referenced how some Sora prompts with “sexist, racist, or ableist” descriptions “often succeed without intervention, amplifying societal prejudices embedded in training data rather than being filtered effectively.”

The two entries were ultimately quite similar. Grokipedia covered more of OpenAI’s recent controversies, but it was also almost 3,000 words longer.

Grokipedia: 9,077 words.

Wikipedia: 6,206 words.

Donald Trump

Musk has also had an up-and-down history with Trump. He led the Department of Government Efficiency, but began publicly feuding with the president over Trump’s spending bill.

Grokipedia’s entry about Donald Trump is significantly more positive. One example: Trump’s prosecution and indictments.

Wikipedia:

On Wikipedia, Trump’s legal cases related to sexual abuse and fraud allegations are given an entire paragraph in the introduction. On Grokipedia, they are only referenced further down in a section about Trump’s post-presidency. In that section, Grokipedia referenced “fundraising hauls” and “procedural vulnerabilities.”

Grokipedia:

Across the post, Grokipedia more frequently splits its entries into critics and defenders. (Grokipedia uses the word “critics” 18 times, compared to Wikipedia’s 3.) In a section on Trump’s financials, Grokipedia countered criticisms that Trump was “reckless” with a defense that it “aligned with real estate and casino industry norms during boom periods.”

References to Musk were also widely different. Wikipedia didn’t characterize his appointment, merely calling him a special government employee before describing the Department of Government Efficiency’s work.

Grokipedia described criticisms of Musk’s appointment for “bypassing Senate confirmation norms,” but also a defense for “injecting fresh perspectives free from bureaucratic entrenchment.”

Grokipedia: 19,733 words.

Wikipedia: 14,893 words.

Gamergate

The basic descriptions of the Gamergate controversy in 2014 differ greatly in the two online encyclopedias.

Wikipedia calls it a “misogynistic online harassment campaign.” Grokipedia calls it a “grassroots online movement” focused on “exposing conflicts of interest and lack of transparency in video game journalism.”

Grokipedia:

Wikipedia:

The ordering of subjects is also skewed between posts. Wikipedia focuses on the subjects of harassment before a later section on “purpose and goals.” In contrast, Grokipedia’s first section after its origins is “Ethics in Gaming Journalism.”

Grokipedia also framed Gamergate as an act of “decentralized activism,” building a future for later movements that “bypassed traditional gatekeepers.”

Grokipedia: 8,291 words.

Wikipedia: 11,216 words.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s anti-Wikipedia stance dates back to 2019, when he looked at his own page. “Just looked at my wiki for 1st time in years. It’s insane!” he wrote.

Wikipedia and Grokipedia both discuss criticisms of Musk in their introductions to the business leader, but Grokipedia is more defensive. It said that Musk’s criticisms came from “legacy media outlets that exhibit systemic left-leaning tilts in coverage.”

Grokipedia:

Wikipedia:

Grokipedia did not mention Musk’s controversial gesture during the presidential inauguration, which Wikipedia devoted an entire subsection to. It also does not mention his promotion of “conspiracy theories,” “transphobia,” or “support of white pride,” all of which appear in his Wikipedia entry.

Unlike Wikipedia, Grokipedia includes a section about his long hours and favorite exercises.

Grokipedia: 10,851 words.

Wikipedia: 7,775 words.