Elon Musk released a seven-minute AI-generated episode of Homer's Odyssey on X after criticising Christopher Nolan's recent film adaptation for its casting choices. Musk had objected to Nolan's casting of black actor Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and said he would make a "historically accurate" version using Grok Imagine, his AI image-generation tool.
The episode, made by London-based Wonder Studios with a creative team of three in less than two weeks, cost tens of thousands of dollars. Nolan's film cost $250m and was shot over 91 days with a large crew, grossing $1.8bn at the box office.
Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw gave the AI episode one star, writing that every dramatic moment was "as motiveless and meaningless as the movement of shapes on a laptop screensaver." A Telegraph reviewer called it "sloppy gruesomeness."
Xavier Collins, co-founder of Wonder Studios, said the creative brief was to test the technology's strengths and weaknesses, not to make an "anti-woke" film. He said the team aims to improve in the next episode based on viewer feedback and criticism about historical accuracy and pacing. The episode has received 7.3m views on the Grok Imagine X account. Musk had pledged to release a full-length film by year end but is releasing the work in episodes instead.