This Frankenstein app is like TikTok for Wiki nerds

Sick of your friends saying you’re dumb? Want to be the smartest in the room? This developer might have the solution, but it could turn out to be totally useless.

We’ve all heard of the digital encyclopedia Wikipedia, but have you ever heard of WikiTok?

It was created by New York-based app developer Isaac Gemal, who is seemingly battling the algorithm abyss by creating a TikTok-esque app that might actually teach you something.

WikiTok is an algorithm-free platform that incorporates scrolling but excludes the brain-rotting, addictive algorithms.

When scrolling through you get a completely random selection of Wikipedia articles that you can take a look at in more depth.

WikiTok is available through mobile and desktop browsers, allowing users to scroll through endless lists of topics on Wikipedia that they might’ve never heard of before.

For example, I stumbled upon a new phenomenon known as “Psedudostrabismus” which is “the false impression that the eyes are misaligned.” Interesting. Not really.

While all of this information is essentially useless, the point of the application is to fight the mindless scrolling that algorithms promote.

Gemal told Ars Technica, which first reported the story, that people are already trying to persuade the developer to personalize the feed, which would require adding an algorithm.

However, the developer is sticking to his guns and has “put (his) foot down” considering that we’re already “ruled by ruthless, opaque algorithms in our everyday lives.”

The code, mostly written by Claude, is available on GitHub so anyone can change or contribute to the project.

Started with a tweet

The project started from a post on X (formerly Twitter) when Tyler Angert essentially proposed the app:

“Insane project idea: all of Wikipedia on a single, scrollable page,” he said.

The idea for WikiTok was born, and with a little help from artificial intelligence models like Anthropic’s Claude and the AI coding tool Cursor, Gemal had a prototype ready after only a few hours.

insane project idea: all of wikipedia on a single, scrollable page

undefined Tyler Angert (@tylerangert) February 3, 2025

After four hours of development, Gemal posted his work on X and it soon went viral on Reddit.

Other users wanted to replicate WikiTok using AI models to help them build their own versions.

I built WikiTok in 4 hours - A TikTok style feed for Wikipedia
byu/Illustrious-King8421 inChatGPTPro