Elon Musk Says Grokipedia 'Is Growing' After Surging to 1.8M Articles in Two Months

Elon Musk has celebrated the rapid growth of Grokipedia, his AI-powered alternative to Wikipedia, as the platform reached approximately 1.8 million articles just two months after launch.

'Grokipedia.com is growing', Musk posted on X on 30 December, quoting a video update that showed the platform now hosts 1,795,736 articles.

The encyclopaedia, built by Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, has more than doubled since its 27 October debut. The platform launched with roughly 885,000 articles and now includes over 71,000 Grok-approved edits, according to user posts tracking its growth.

Could Grokipedia Overtake Wikipedia by 2027?

Tech commentators have been quick to project Grokipedia's trajectory. 'Grokipedia: 2 months → ~1.7M articles. Wikipedia: 24 years → ~71M', wrote one user on X. 'At this pace, Grokipedia could surpass Wikipedia by early 2027.'

The enthusiasm isn't universal, though. One user testing the platform praised its article about them as 'significantly better than the Wikipedia version, much more detailed, and has more up-to-date information'.

An xAI engineer noted the platform added half a million articles in a single day after launching its 'Suggest Article' feature. 'Community-driven abundance compounding, Grokipedia closing the gap fast', he wrote.

But quality concerns remain. One observer cautioned that whilst the growth numbers are impressive, what matters next is 'quality: source transparency, revertability, and a browsable diff/history so readers can tell what changed and why'.

The Numbers Behind the Growth

Wikipedia remains the dominant force in online encyclopaedias. The site currently hosts more than 7.1 million articles in English alone, built over 24 years by volunteer editors. It averages around 500 new articles daily.

Grokipedia's 1.8 million articles, generated primarily by xAI's Grok language model in just eight weeks, represent a different approach entirely.

The platform doesn't allow direct editing. Users can suggest corrections through a form, but Grok handles all updates, according to PBS News.

Musk has framed Grokipedia as a counter to what he sees as Wikipedia's left-wing bias. He has repeatedly called the site 'Wokepedia' and announced the project in September, following tech investor David Sacks' criticism of Wikipedia as 'hopelessly biased'.

Critics Point to Sourcing and Accuracy Issues

The platform hasn't escaped criticism. Many articles were adapted from Wikipedia itself under Creative Commons licensing, with some entries appearing nearly word-for-word identical to their Wikipedia counterparts.

IBTimes UK previously reported that a Cornell Tech study found Grokipedia carried thousands of citations to 'questionable' and 'problematic' sources, especially in articles about politics and conspiracy theories.

PBS News found that some entries are thinly sourced. An article on the Chola Dynasty of southern India had three linked sources, compared to Wikipedia's 113.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales warned in October that large language models like Grok 'are going to make massive errors' when creating encyclopaedic content. 'I'm not optimistic he will create anything very useful right now', Wales said.

Musk has acknowledged that Grokipedia is still in its early stages. The current version is labelled 'v0.1'. He's said he plans to eventually rename it Encyclopedia Galactica when it's 'good enough', though he's also admitted it has 'a long way to go'.

For now, the platform remains accessible at Grokipedia.com, where users can search for AI-generated articles on a wide range of topics, including science, history, and current events. Whether it becomes a genuine Wikipedia alternative or another ambitious Musk experiment remains to be seen.