
AI-generated summary
Elon Musk is one of the world's richest people and the founder of companies such as Tesla, SpaceX and X Corp. He has been involved in American politics, particularly through financial support for Donald Trump. His company SpaceX operates the Starlink and Starshield satellite systems, which have military and civilian uses.
Elon Musk is not fond of "Musk", Alex Gibney's documentary, which premieres across the US on Friday. He calls the director an idiot and a tinfoil hat and added the other day with the claim that "dog poo deserves more respect".
Gibney was unable to persuade Musk to be interviewed in the film, which is based on years of research, archival material and the involvement of many of his close associates, including two of the women he has children with.
So instead of showing the real Musk, Gibney has chosen a different approach. He has the world's richest man "interviewed" in the form of an AI-generated Musk avatar, but the answers he gives are things he has proven to have said in real, recorded interviews.
The method has received some criticism, but the director justifies it with something Musk himself has said: that he is not completely sure that we are not all living in an illusion, produced by a future superintelligence.
Regardless of that matter, our contemporary reality appears very frightening in this film.
Gibney's thesis is that what drives Musk is not really the money, but the power. Seen from this perspective, it is not Donald Trump who has recruited Elon Musk, but the opposite.
In the director's presentation, the president is a tool for the world's richest man. Musk could have just as easily chosen someone else, but Trump was easily manipulated and suited his purposes.
This is a thesis that can be debated – it already does. But at the same time, the reality here and now supports the idea that a single, unelected person has probably never had more power than Musk.
Before the mid-term elections, he has, according to the latest information, pumped in 366 million dollars so that Trump can keep his majority in Congress. This corresponds to 3.6 billion kroner - and the real figure can be much higher because these are only publicly declared contributions.
This is already more than what Musk contributed to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, and likely the largest political contribution ever made by a private individual.
But what makes him even more unique is his geopolitical power.
Through the Starlink satellite system, Musk can influence the war in Ukraine. He has done it in the past, by ordering restrictions on how the satellites can be used. And apparently he's doing it again right now.
Starlink and the associated Starshield system are crucial for Ukraine, both for the country to be able to defend itself against incoming Russian missiles and drones and for offensive actions against Russian targets.
Ukraine now claims, among other things, that Starshield suddenly cannot be used in the same way as a few days ago. Musk and Trump deny that the system has been manipulated, but at the same time blame each other.
In the documentary, Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Musk's many children, says that the billionaire went home early from Trump's Mar-a-Lago on election night in 2024.
She shows their text message thread from that evening, in which Musk claims he already "knows" how the election will go and writes that he "has 10,000 laser systems in space right now" - a claim some interpret as the billionaire could somehow influence the election result.
Musk denies this and has threatened to sue the director.
But Ashley St Clair, who has since completely broken up with Musk, sees the incident as a terrifying example of the ex-boyfriend's power.
She worries about the damage he could do to the world.
- Elon is an atomic bomb, she says.
Read more: Hamilton Steiner: Suddenly the missiles come without warning Ukraine accuses the US of restricting Starlink
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Elon Musk will take legal action against Alex Gibney for the documentary.
Likely · Within weeks
The debate over the influence of private individuals over American politics and war will intensify.
Very likely · Within months

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