Elon Musk launched Grokipedia last month to take on Wikipedia. However, his site has struggled to attract and retain users so far, according to internet traffic monitor Similarweb.
Traffic to Grokipedia surged during its initial launch, peaking at over 460,000 web visits in the US on Oct. 28 from both desktop and mobile users, Similarweb tells us.
But since then, visits have taken a sharp dive. Similarweb, which pulls data from opted-in users and partners, now puts web visits at around 30,000 per day.
(Credit: Similarweb)
“As you can see, traffic spiked on its launch, but has trended down quite quickly, losing over 90% of its peak traffic already—it seems any initial hype it had has already died down,” says Similarweb analyst Daniel Reid.
The numbers indicate Grokipedia faces an uphill battle against Wikipedia, which Similarweb currently ranks as the ninth-most visited site in the world, ahead of Bing.com, TikTok.com, Yahoo.com, and Amazon.com. (Musk’s X/Twitter comes in at sixth.)
Grokipedia stands out for relying on AI to generate articles, in contrast to the human community volunteers for Wikipedia. Musk says Grokipedia promises to be a massive improvement over Wikipedia, a site the Tesla CEO has long had a beef with.
However, the initial 0.1 version of Grokipedia was found to host numerous articles that appeared to be copied from Wikipedia. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, who has also been critical of the site, found Grokipedia problematic, telling us it suffers from AI-powered “bullshittery.” Others have slammed Grokipedia for promoting right-wing fringe theories or talking points from the Russian government about the Ukraine war.
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However, Musk and his startup, xAI, have been working to improve Grokipedia, which allows users to submit suggested edits. On Friday, Musk revealed Grokipedia now includes a function to review the edit history of an article, including why a suggested edit was approved or rejected.
The day before, he also tweeted, “When Grokipedia is good enough (long way to go), we will change the name to Encyclopedia Galactica,” a reference to sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. “It will be an open source distillation of all knowledge, including audio, images and video.”
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Michael Kan
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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