Per VICE, a winner has been crowned in Elon Musk's $100,000 Grok Imagine contest, and VICE describes the winning short as another rubbery AI video riddled with inaccuracies — including a three-eyed Cyclops — all set against a Nolan film that crossed $600m worldwide.
Elon Musk launched a contest offering $100,000 to whoever could use his Grok AI to make a "historically accurate" version of the Odyssey, framing it against Christopher Nolan's blockbuster, which VICE reports he said "desecrated Homer." VICE reports that a winner has been crowned, and in VICE's account the winning film is another in a long line of rubbery-looking AI videos, riddled with inaccuracies that clash with the source material — descriptions that rest on that single outlet, with no contest rules, winner identity, or original artifact in the captured record. [1] [1]
Among the errors VICE attributes to the winning adaptation: Polyphemus, the famously one-eyed Cyclops, has three eyes and appears to change sizes across the five-minute short; Poseidon resembles something from a predatory mobile game; and Greek soldiers wear Roman legionary armor. VICE also quotes a post attributed to user Nem Perez, dated August 31, 2026, saying he pushed Grok Imagine "to its absolute limits" for a five-minute epic and objecting that the recent adaptation omitted the Phaeacians and Princess Nausicaa. The captured passages do not state that Perez is the contest winner, and this report does not make that connection. [1] [1] [1]
The contest followed Musk's public campaign against Nolan's film. According to The Guardian, Musk said on X that before the year ends, Grok Imagine would make a full-length Odyssey that is "historically accurate and true to the art of Homer" — a pledge about a future outcome, not a completed release, and the capture does not show that such a full-length film has been made. The Guardian also reported that Musk repeatedly criticized Nolan's casting of Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as Sinon, writing that Nolan "wants the awards" and had "lost his integrity." [4] [4]
Al Jazeera's reporting on the backlash records pushback against some accuracy complaints: right-wing commentator Matt Walsh said no one thinks Nyong'o is "the most beautiful woman in the world," while scholars told Al Jazeera that Homer never explicitly calls Helen that in the Iliad or the Odyssey, using epithets such as "white-armed" and "godlike." Al Jazeera also reported classical scholar Daniel Mendelsohn's view that complaining about authenticity for mythological figures is "silly." This dispute is documented through one outlet's reporting, which is not a survey of scholarly opinion. [5] [5]
Nolan's film was a box office and critical hit. The Guardian reported it secured glowing reviews and more than $600m at the global box office by late July, rising to $640m after an $87m second US weekend. VICE described it as Universal Pictures' highest-grossing film of all time, a characterization not corroborated within the capture. A pirated copy that circulated on X was removed after a post flagging it drew more than three million views; Universal said it took copyright infringement seriously and would pursue appropriate remedies. [3] [3] [3] [1]
This report is drawn entirely from publisher accounts captured on 17 September 2026. No original contest rules page, judging rubric, entry list, prize-payment confirmation, or copy of the winning film was obtained, so every claim here remains attributed to its publisher rather than independently corroborated.
The report that a winner has been crowned rests on a single account: VICE's passage stating 'a winner of Musk's contest has been crowned.' No second outlet, press release, or original contest artifact in the capture confirms the coronation, the winner's identity, the $100,000 being paid, the number of entries, the judging criteria, or how 'historical accuracy' was defined. The contest's launch date is also undocumented, and the 31 August 2026 date attached to the quoted user post is a post date, not a contest date.
VICE's passages do not state that the user Nem Perez is the contest winner, or that the post quoted about a five-minute short is the winning film. The report keeps these separate and does not imply a link.
The discovery framing — the winning film specifically being 'not good,' and questions of who judged the contest and on what basis — is not fully addressed by captured passages, which is flagged rather than filled.
VICE's characterizations of the winning film — the three-eyed Cyclops, Poseidon, Roman armor on Greek soldiers, missing emotional resonance — are opinionated publisher descriptions, not independently verified observations; no captured passage contains a neutral technical assessment, and no copy of the film was available for viewing.
VICE's claim that Nolan's film is Universal Pictures' highest-grossing of all time is not corroborated within the capture; The Guardian's box office figures may rest on different accounting.
The dispute over authenticity claims is drawn from one outlet's reporting (Al Jazeera) presenting selected scholars' views (including Daniel Mendelsohn's) and one critic's (Matt Walsh's) statement. These are not a survey; absence of recorded disagreement does not establish consensus, and the selection is not exhaustive.
All captured sources are publisher reporting. No wire-service confirmation, press release, or original document was obtained, so claims are marked attributed, not corroborated. No evidence of agreement across independent outlets was found, which does not prove consensus.
Research coverage limits: some candidate sources were inaccessible or outside supported domains; the search log and capture are bounded, and absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
No original document was captured. Available evidence consists of publisher reporting.
Some candidate sources were inaccessible or outside the supported research domains; consult the capture log.
[1] VICE · The Winning Film of the 'Historically Accurate' Odyssey Contest Is, Uh, Not Good ↗
17/9/2026 · Publisher reporting
[2] theguardian.com · Go woke, get rich: why rightwing hate campaigns don’t affect the box office | The Odyssey | The Guardian ↗
22/7/2026 · Publisher reporting
[3] theguardian.com · Unauthorised version of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey shared on X | The Odyssey | The Guardian ↗
27/7/2026 · Publisher reporting
[4] theguardian.com · Elon Musk says Grok Imagine will make ‘historically accurate’ AI adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey | Film | The Guardian ↗
22/7/2026 · Publisher reporting
[5] aljazeera.com · Why is Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey so controversial? | Arts and Culture News | Al Jazeera ↗
20/7/2026 · Publisher reporting
[6] VICE · The Winning Film of the 'Historically Accurate' Odyssey Contest Is, Uh, Not Good ↗
17/9/2026 · Publisher reporting
Source records and any dated corrections accompany this article.
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