Need a Good Laugh? Watch the $100K Winner of Elon Musk’s AI ‘Odyssey’ Contest

Nem Perez / Grok

Despite its enormous and ongoing success at the box office, as well as being lauded for its innovative filmmaking, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has repeatedly made it known that he does not like Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey.

Musk’s issues with Nolan’s epic mainly stem from the revered director casting Black actress Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and the inclusion of transgender actor Elliot Page as a Greek soldier.

Musk says that Nolan “desecrated Homer and groveled on his knees just to meet the woke rules required to win an Oscar.”

The multi-billionaire dislikes the blockbuster so much that he vowed Grok, the AI model he owns, would make a “historically accurate” version of Homer’s epic before the year is out.

‘Five-Minute Epic’

Futurism reports that Musk actually threw together a contest asking people to create an AI version of The Odyssey using Grok.

The Grand Prize winner was awarded an impressive $100,000. It went to Nem Perez, who says he “pushed Grok to its absolute limit to create this five-minute epic.”

Five minutes is a very short space of time to fit in Homer’s Odyssey. Perez says he focused on the Phaeacians and Princess Nausicaa, “whom Odysseus told his story to in the original poem.” The Phaeacians weren’t included in Nolan’s telling.

This is "The Odyssey" as Homer intended. My longest, most intricate work to date. I pushed @grok @imagine to its absolute limits to create this 5-minute epic.

What bothered me most about the recent adaptation was the omission of the Phaeacians and Princess Nausicaa, whom… https://t.co/awYW6Hu4W8 pic.twitter.com/hJHOgdkEec

— Nem Perez (@NemPerez) August 31, 2026

Perez claims that his movie (above) is The Odyssey as Homer intended. But as Futurism notes, there are some glaring issues. Not least, the Cyclops Polyphemus, who is depicted with three eyes and shifts in size wildly from cut to cut.

There are also some classic AI disasters in Perez’s work, like a scene where Odysseus’ men appear to have feet for hands and dialog that’s more wooden than the boat Odysseus sails on.

Perez’s five-minute fever dream of The Odyssey is still a far cry from the full-length feature promised by Musk. But if this is the best AI has to offer, Nolan will be sleeping safe and sound for the foreseeable future.

He might want to worry more about “Christopher Notlan”, a character created by comedic filmmaker Will Norman after he shot his version of The Odyssey not on IMAX, but on iMacs.