Musk’s AI Odyssey Draws Backlash Over Anti-woke Message and Quality
WHO:
Gizmodo - Elon Musk’s Grok-powered project is an AI-generated adaptation of Homer’s *The Odyssey*.
Gizmodo - The project’s release post credited Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker as creative collaborators.
The Hollywood Reporter - Wonder Studios and Dev Walker worked on the AI-created footage.
The Hollywood Reporter - Christopher Nolan directed a blockbuster adaptation of *The Odyssey*; Lupita Nyong’o was cast as Helen of Troy.
The Hollywood Reporter - A critic for *The Telegraph* criticized the AI footage but said its battle scenes had “some of the epic quality of Zack Snyder’s Spartan romp 300.”
The Hollywood Reporter - Alex Gibney directed a four-hour documentary about Musk titled *Musk*.
WHAT:
Gizmodo - The footage depicts Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus, including scenes of Odysseus striking a table, Greek soldiers shouting “vengeance,” Penelope urging Odysseus to go to war, and Telemachus learning to fight.
Gizmodo - The episode includes realistic-looking landscapes, though the article described its wide shots as “a bit ropey”; characters generally had the correct number of fingers.
The Hollywood Reporter - A *Telegraph* critic said Penelope “looks completely different in each scene” and described the footage as unsettling, gruesome, and zombie-like.
The Hollywood Reporter - The most-upvoted comment on the official X post called the episode “absolute shit”; other viewers criticized its acting, script, and lack of substance.
Gizmodo - The released material was described as “Episode 1 of our Odyssey series,” not the feature-length rival to Nolan’s film that Musk had promised.
Gizmodo - The episode runs seven minutes and consists largely of portentous shots rather than a coherent narrative.
Gizmodo - Gizmodo said the visuals showed advances in AI video, including realistic-looking landscapes, but judged the work a poor film and more like a trailer or video-game introduction.
The Hollywood Reporter - Viewers criticized the episode as “absolute shit,” “soulless slop,” and flat and clichéd; one commenter praised it as “overall very impressive” and said they looked forward to more episodes.
The Hollywood Reporter - The video had 6.8 million impressions; the article noted that an impression could be counted when someone scrolled past without watching the full video.
The Hollywood Reporter - Nolan’s *The Odyssey* grossed more than $1.78 billion worldwide, the highest-grossing film of his career.
The Hollywood Reporter - Gibney’s *Musk* flopped at the box office and was almost entirely pulled from theaters after one week of wide release.
WHERE:
Gizmodo - The series was posted on Musk’s social media platform X.
The Hollywood Reporter - Gibney’s documentary was released in theaters.
WHY:
Wired - Grok said its AI-generated version of *The Odyssey* was “not historically accurate.”
Gizmodo - The project was presented as a demonstration that Grok could liberate filmmaking from what the article described as “the libs.”
The Hollywood Reporter - Musk’s criticism of Nolan’s casting included a claim that diverse actors were chosen to fulfill an Academy Awards inclusion requirement.
HOW:
Gizmodo - The episode was made with Grok Imagine, an AI video-generation tool.
The Hollywood Reporter - Musk criticized Nolan’s film in posts on X, calling Nolan a “coward” via agreement with a conservative commentator and writing, “Nolan has lost his integrity.”
(UPDATED October 27, 2026 00:00 UTC)
Elon Musk has released a seven-minute, AI-generated adaptation of *The Odyssey* on X, made with Grok Imagine and credited to Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker. The episode shows Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus in dramatic scenes, but viewers criticized its acting, script, and visuals, while reviewers noted that the footage was unsettling and lacked a coherent story. Musk had presented the project as a challenge to Christopher Nolan’s adaptation, which became the highest-grossing film of Nolan’s career, while Grok acknowledged its AI version was not historically accurate.
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(UPDATED October 26, 2026 22:11 UTC)
Elon Musk has released a seven-minute, AI-generated adaptation of Homer’s *The Odyssey* on X, made with Grok Imagine and credited to Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker. The episode, which Musk had presented as a demonstration of filmmaking free from “the libs,” drew mixed reactions: some viewers praised its visuals, while others called it flat and clichéd, and reviewers said it plays more like a trailer than a coherent film. Musk has also criticized Christopher Nolan’s *The Odyssey* and its casting; Nolan’s film grossed more than $1.78 billion worldwide.