Grok's 'Odyssey' Episode Admits It's Not Historically Accurate

Elon Musk promised a historically accurate take on The Odyssey. What he delivered, more than three months after vowing to do it "before this year ends," is a seven-minute AI-generated episode - and even Grok says it misses the historical mark.

Musk announced "Odyssey with Grok Imagine" on X on Friday, sharing the clip produced by AI entertainment company Wonder Studios X. The episode shows Odysseus, King of Ithaca, resisting the call to war against Troy before an oath of loyalty compels him to sail. It drew just 18,000 likes, far less engagement than many of Musk's other recent posts.

The clip carries familiar AI flaws: faces don't sync with dialogue, delivery is stilted, and pacing is off - the Ithacans reach Troy's shores right after leaving home. Even X users were unimpressed. "Someone actually watched this and still decided to post it?" one wrote.

Musk had pitched the project as a corrective to Christopher Nolan's film adaptation, which he and other critics called historically inaccurate over its casting and design choices. The Nolan film has grossed nearly $1.8 billion worldwide.

Asked whether the Grok episode is historically accurate, the chatbot answered plainly: "No." It said the series adapts Homer's poem rather than reconstructing real events, that its characters have no basis in the historical record, and that it features modern English with British accents instead of Homeric Greek. Grok also flagged the appearance of cavalry in a battle scene as an error. "The Odyssey itself is not a historical document," it concluded, "and the production makes no serious attempt at archaeological or linguistic fidelity."