VENICE, Italy (AP) — A new documentary about Elon Musk uses a CGI avatar and artificial intelligence voice syncing to simulate an interview with the SpaceX and Tesla CEO using things he’s really said in interviews.
The choice, filmmaker Alex Gibney said Tuesday in Venice before the film's world premiere, was intentionally ironic. It both references Musk’s proposition that we’re all living in a simulation and pokes at his somewhat paradoxical and shifting views of the technology. Gibney said it is to convey the “reality of what he’s done and unreality of his narrative.”
Click to Gallery
This combination of images show filmmaker Alex Gibney, left, and Elon Musk. (AP Photo)
Ashley St. Clair poses for photographers at the photo call for the documentray film 'Musk' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Director Alex Gibney poses for photographers at the photo call for the documentary film 'Musk' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Director Alex Gibney poses for photographers at the photo call for the documentary film 'Musk' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
The filmmakers consulted lawyers before going too far down the road and got the sign-off to use the Musk avatar.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker was joined at the Venice Film Festival by Ashley St. Clair, once a conservative influencer, who shares a child with Musk and who appears in the film. She talks about their relationship, his character and the nondisclosure agreement she was asked, and refused, to sign to guarantee paternity support.
“I was offered the opportunity not to speak for $40 million,” she said.
St. Clair earlier this year also sued Musk's AI company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually exploitive deepfake images of her that have caused her humiliation and emotional distress.
The film goes into Musk's takeover of X and what Gibney says is the manipulation of the algorithm.
“One thing that I didn't properly understand when I started the film was how Musk tweaked algorithms at Twitter to, in fact, prioritize vitriol and hate over, you know, the town square,” Gibney said.
“Wired” reporter Zoë Schiffer, who also appears in the film, added that “he has tweaked the algorithm, both to suppress mainstream journalism and then to augment some of the more inflammatory comments and voices on that platform.”
St. Clair said she believes he’s stoking fires and “causing deliberate division that could be catastrophic if it’s not regulated or contained.”
With a runtime of nearly four hours, “Musk” delves into his traumatic childhood, including an interview with his father, Errol Musk, and traces his early days in Silicon Valley through his DOGE work with the second Donald Trump administration and involvement in right-wing politics internationally. It was, Gibney said, going to be a much shorter film before Musk wrapped himself in Trump's campaign.
Those interviewed include Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard, his first wife Justine Musk, neurologist Sam Harris, tech reporter Kara Swisher and former USAID Administrator Samantha Power.
Gibney said he thinks Musk is “extremely” dangerous to democracy. The film, which will be released in theaters in October, raises alarms about the information the “DOGE boys” gathered on U.S. citizens with their unfettered access to so many government agencies.
For ongoing coverage of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival
This story has been updated to remove a reference to the use of an AI avatar to simulate the Musk interview.
This combination of images show filmmaker Alex Gibney, left, and Elon Musk. (AP Photo)
Ashley St. Clair poses for photographers at the photo call for the documentray film 'Musk' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Director Alex Gibney poses for photographers at the photo call for the documentary film 'Musk' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Director Alex Gibney poses for photographers at the photo call for the documentary film 'Musk' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin assured U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Tuesday that Moscow doesn't harbor aggressive intentions toward Europe, a senior Kremlin official said, after European officials blamed Moscow for sabotage campaigns on their soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said meanwhile that U.S. envoys who visited Kyiv presented some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending Russia's 4 1/2-year-old war, adding that he hopes to meet with Trump within two weeks.
But Russia remains determined to accomplish its military goals and it believes it is close to winning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Ukrainian and Western observers, however, believe that Moscow has been unable to make any significant progress on the front line.
The war could yet drag on for years as Russia reconstitutes its forces and its defense industry, said U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby.
“We must be prepared for a protracted conflict and for Ukraine’s requirements to persist in the months and years ahead,” Colby told an online meeting of countries helping Ukraine.
U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Putin and Zelenskyy over the weekend. The meetings appeared to produce no substantial breakthrough on ending the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war after a weekend truce in their capitals for the American visitors.
The attacks killed at least five civilians and wounded 25 others in Kyiv, officials said, while officials from Russia reported three people killed and 13 wounded in areas it controls.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said the hourlong conversation between Putin and Trump was “constructive and quite frank.” Moscow has a positive view of the results of the weekend visit by Witkoff and Kushner, he added.
There was no immediate White House comment on the call.
Ushakov told reporters that “in view of the speculation about Russia’s alleged hostile intentions toward European countries, it was underlined that we don’t have any aggressive plans regarding Europe.”
That claim runs counter to European authorities' versions of recent incidents, such as the German government last week blaming Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in August using a drone laden with explosives.
Ushakov said Putin told Trump about the combat situation in Ukraine and Russia’s plans to make battlefield gains and achieve its military goals in what Moscow calls its “special military operation,” not a war.
Zelenskyy said he is counting on meeting with Trump around Sept. 20 — about the same time that the U.N. General Assembly is being held in New York. Putin isn't expected to attend.
He indicated he will press Trump to provide more Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv needs to counter Russia's ballistic missiles.
Ukraine needs 300 Patriot missiles from its partners’ stocks, 500 air-to-air interceptors and $2 billion for more drones, U.K. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting told the meeting of countries providing help.
Also on Tuesday, the European Commission approved a loan of 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) for Kyiv to purchase components for Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel.
Zelenskyy thanked U.S. officials for their efforts to unblock negotiations with Russia, which have been stuck since early this year with little progress.
“As for the peace package that Kushner spoke about and the new ideas, I’ll tell you frankly, there were indeed a couple of very good, worthwhile ideas,” Zelenskyy said in audio messages answering reporters' questions.
The proposals will remain under wraps for now, he said, but he expressed hope that talks involving delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. can take place in the fall.
Ukraine is “ready to find a compromise” on the issues of grain exports and energy, he said. Moscow and Kyiv have targeted each other’s grain ships in the Black Sea, raising concerns that two of the world's major suppliers won't be able to get their produce to market.
Ukraine has also battered Russian oil facilities while Russia has pounded Ukraine's power grid ahead of winter.
Peskov said he believed “victory is very close” on the battlefield.
"We’re very confident in our military potential,” he told reporters, while insisting Russia wants to find a peaceful solution and welcomes Trump's diplomatic efforts.
Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength. But European officials and Western analysts say its bigger army is unable to make significant progress on the 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line, where it is pushing to capture the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, part of its industrial heartland.
“Russian forces will not seize Donetsk ... until 2032 at their current rate of advance — if they can seize it at all,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Sunday. “The Russian rate of advance has slowed significantly across the theater since 2025, when Russia’s rate of advance had already begun to slow.”
With troops bogged down on the battlefield, both countries have intensified their aerial campaign of drones and missiles.
Russia’s main targets in its overnight attack were Kyiv and the Odesa region of southern Ukraine, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv for nearly five hours, according to Vyhivskyi. More than 50 sites were damaged during the attack, including residential buildings, dormitories, schools, stores and gas stations, he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “a horrific attack” and accused Putin of undermining U.S. peace efforts.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight launched a massive strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities.
It provided a detailed list of its targets. They included places storing Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles, as well as transport, logistics and distribution centers for military cargo in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, the ministry said.
Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A rescue worker puts out a fire of a building destroyed after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Smoke rises following a Russian missiles attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man walks along an underpass as smoke rises following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
