Musk slams legacy outlets as ‘fake authoritative sources’ while promoting Grokipedia

WEB DESK: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has stirred a fresh wave of debate over his newly launched AI platform Grokipedia after accusing several leading media outlets of surviving on what he described as “donations from far left organizations disguised as charities.”

In a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) account, Musk said that “Wired, The Atlantic, Guardian and many other propaganda legacy publications would die immediately if they had to support themselves. Donations from far left organizations disguised as charities are what keep them alive. They serve simply as a means of influencing Wikipedia, Google, etc as fake ‘authoritative’ sources.”

Mixed reactions from users

The remarks drew a sharp divide among X users. One user responded in support of Musk, writing: “Testing dozens of articles, the language used in Grokpedia was extremely balanced and fair compared to Wikipedia. Grokpedia allows users to draw their own conclusions versus the often inflammatory or biased language used on Wikipedia.”

Another user, however, hit back strongly, saying: “Oh please, the only thing ‘propped up’ by fake money is the right-wing outrage economy. Outlets like The Atlantic and The Guardian survive on subscribers, not billionaires spoon-feeding propaganda through PACs and church-laundered ‘nonprofits.’ You’re describing Project Veritas, Daily Wire, and Breitbart, not independent journalism. If facts hurt your side that much, maybe the problem isn’t the press it’s the lies you keep defending.”

Praise for Grokipedia

Recently, Musk also praised his AI company xAI’s team for their work on Grokipedia, an AI-driven encyclopedia designed to rival Wikipedia. “Nice work by the @xAI team on http://Grokipedia.com! The goal here is to create an open source, comprehensive collection of all knowledge. Then place copies of that etched in a stable oxide in orbit, the Moon and Mars to preserve it for the future,” he wrote in another post.

Many users thanked him for “keeping the truth alive,” with several calling the project a “brilliant idea” and “really good.” One user commented, “Absolutely incredible I can’t wait till it’s available in the App Store.”

Another user compared the two platforms, writing: “Wikipedia: ‘conservatives say the twitter files show what they call “liberal bias”’ Grokipedia: ‘here’s what the twitter files found, specifically, the mechanism for algorithmic demotion, how it was applied, and you can click to read them it detail’ The spin in wikipedia is insane Grokipedia is so much more clear and unbiased. I knew wikipedia was biased, but this is pretty insane.”

What’s Grokipedia?

Elon Musk’s xAI has launched Grokipedia, a new AI-driven encyclopedia designed to take on Wikipedia that’s fully open source.

“The goal of Grok and Grokipedia.com is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We will never be perfect, but we shall nonetheless strive towards that goal,” said Musk.

The free online platform went live late Monday, claiming to deliver “maximum truth-seeking” content generated by artificial intelligence rather than human editors.

Built using xAI’s Grok chatbot technology, Grokipedia features nearly 900,000 articles, spanning topics from science to pop culture. Entries are automatically generated and updated in real time with no volunteer edits or moderation debates.

Musk reiterated his vision on Tuesday, saying, “The goal here is to create an open source, comprehensive collection of all knowledge. Then place copies of that etched in a stable oxide in orbit, the Moon and Mars to preserve it for the future. Foundation.”