‘Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer,” Elon Musk announced on X a little over three months ago.
You remember that undignified squabble. In the lead-up to the release of Christopher Nolan’s take on the Homer epic, righteous cadres rose in objection to its supposed wokeness. Lupita Nyong’o, a black actor, was playing Helen of Troy. Elliot Page, a transgender man, was cast as Sinon (not Achilles, as initially believed).
There was speculation about the supposed influence of Emily Wilson’s revisionist translation of the poem. And so on. Up stepped Musk to offer Grok Imagine, his AI image and video generator, as a potential saviour for western culture.
The Odyssey’s stunning success should really have ended this conversation. Nolan’s film, taking in $1.8 billion at the box office, exceeded all reasonable expectations. It scored consistently strong reviews and is odds-on favourite with bookmakers to win best picture at the upcoming Oscars.
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Yet it seems there is still some mileage in the dispute. Earlier this week a seven-minute video, posted on Grok Imagine’s X account, looked to be following up on Musk’s promise. “Watch Episode 1 of our Odyssey series made with Grok Imagine,” the post read. “Let us know in the comments if you’d like a full breakdown of how it was done!”
The attendant language was more emollient than waiting vultures might have preferred. Xavier Collins, a founder of Wonder Studios, joint creator of the project, told The Guardian he was a “huge fan” of the Nolan film and that his team “were not given any direction to make it” – Musk’s version – “anti-woke or anything like that”.
Grok Imagine’s X post was similarly conciliatory. “We’ve partnered with Wonder Studios on a series of short episodes drawn from The Odyssey,” it read. “Our goal is simple: get honest, critical feedback from filmmakers and use it to improve Grok Imagine’s image and video models.”
None of this qualification dampened online resistance. “Elon Musk’s slop generator releases first episode of his AI Odyssey,” the AV Club headlined. “Elon Musk’s AI-generated The Odyssey draws ridicule after first seven-minute episode released,” the London Independent barked. Rolling Stone, sticking with the theme, placed the words “Grok Slop” at the head of its report. “Even on an AI level, the acting is not great,” the venerable US magazine concluded.
The video will, indeed, do little to win over those currently resistant to the artificial-intelligence revolution. The kindest thing to be said is that, so far as I can see, none of the characters has more than five digits on any of their hands. One cannot always say that about AI imagery.
We begin with the baby Telemachus, son of Odysseus, being set down in a muddy field. Our initially unseen hero, pretending madness to avoid the conflict, comes into view at the handles of a plough. Palamedes and Agamemnon, placing the child before the incoming blade, have, according to the female narrator, “set a trap that no sane father could ignore”.
Sure enough, the unmistakably rational Odysseus sweeps down and plucks the child to safety and we are soon on the journey to Troy.
A few years ago only a team of dozens, working over many months, could have computer-generated such imagery. Indeed, the battle scenes later in the episode offer unmistakable reminders of Zack Snyder’s 300, from two decades ago. Postproduction on that film lasted for a year and required the contribution of 10 special-effects houses.
“We’re building these episodes in public with a small crew of 3-5 creatives,” Grok Imagine explained this week.
So it would be churlish not to acknowledge that some sort of magic is afoot. But there is not a hint of the aesthetic energy that Nolan brought to his epic. For all that director’s predilection to bombast, he still produces images that have the thumbprints of human labour on every frame.
Put simply, the first episode of Grok Imagine’s Odyssey looks exactly as you would expect it to look. The glossily unreal characters appear like constructs formed from barely recognisable waxworks of popular actors. Odysseus gives the impression of Oscar Isaac trying to break free from an Aidan Turner flesh-bag (or vice versa). Lines of dialogue end with a moment of silence before the next voice clocks in mechanically.
So close are we to the cut scenes in a video game that I felt my thumb involuntarily twitching towards the triangle button throughout.
Yet one can easily understand why writers, actors and directors are nervous. There is a sense here of frightening work in progress. The ghost in the machine is not yet discernible. That may not always be the case.
