Overview
- Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney assembled interviews, testimony and archival material into a four-hour film that the director says will premiere at the Venice Film Festival and later open in theaters.
- The documentary presents the claim that Musk spent about $290 million to help President Trump’s 2024 campaign and that people close to him describe an unusual certainty about the election outcome.
- Commentators in the film, including AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton, say Musk sought detailed data on tens of millions of Americans that could be used with artificial intelligence to influence future elections.
- Gibney recounts Musk’s chaotic stewardship of the short-lived U.S. Department of Government Efficiency and says that role led to roughly 270,000 federal job losses and cuts to USAID funding with direct effects on aid programs.
- The film builds a psychological portrait using childhood anecdotes and testimony to argue that concentrated private power in technology poses political risks, and the reported allegations are presented by the filmmaker and participants without independent verification.