Gibney's Musk Documentary Warns DOGE Data Could Be Used 'for an AI To Influence the Election'

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has brought his new documentary Musk to the Venice Film Festival ahead of an October theatrical release, warning that government data accessed during Elon Musk's period leading the Department of Government Efficiency could potentially be used with artificial intelligence to influence the US midterm election in November.

The four-hour Musk documentary examines Musk's role across politics, media and government, including DOGE, the Trump administration initiative that ended in 2026.

Gibney argues the data accessed by DOGE staff raises questions about how such information could later be used.

Musk Documentary Focuses on DOGE Data Access

One of the documentary's central claims concerns the level of access given to DOGE staff while the programme was operating. The initiative had been presented as an effort to reduce the size of government through staff cuts and technological changes.

The documentary presents DOGE as an initiative that, in Gibney's view, deepened instability rather than reducing it, while giving Musk's Gen Z staff broad access to government systems and information concerning American citizens across multiple agencies.

Musk, the Tesla chairman and SpaceX CEO, is presented by the film as the central figure linking its questions around government data, artificial intelligence and political influence.

At a Venice press conference, Gibney said, 'We know that during DOGE, the DOGE boys, had sort of super-admin status at all of the agencies, and that meant that they had access to an extraordinary amount of data on all American citizens.'

The film contends that staff working under Musk were able to access and archive a large amount of government information.

Gibney did not say that such data had been transferred to Musk's companies or used in an election-related system. He instead framed that possibility as conjecture.

'Moving that data would have been as simple, as I understand it, as moving a file into a folder,' he said. 'And could that folder be at SpaceX? And might he be using that for an AI to influence the election? Yeah, I think it's a good conjecture.'

That distinction matters. The documentary presents a warning about what Gibney believes the data access could make possible, rather than a claim that an election influence operation has occurred.

Musk Documentary Also Examines X and AI

The film also turns to Musk's ownership of X, formerly Twitter, after he purchased the platform in 2022. It alleges that Musk used X's artificial intelligence systems to shape what users saw according to his political and personal preferences.

Wired journalist Zoë Schiffer and influencer Ashley St. Clair appear in the documentary. At the Venice press conference, St. Clair said she rejected a non-disclosure agreement package from Musk and broke with both him and the MAGA movement.

Gibney also uses artificial intelligence in the film. The documentary pairs Musk's actual voice with a computer-generated avatar appearing in a talking-head interview, a choice he described as 'intentionally ironic.'

Musk Documentary Arrives Amid Wider AI Concerns

The wider debate around the film includes congressional resistance to new AI rules, public concern about security and the rapid expansion of computing infrastructure by major technology companies.

Musk is scheduled for an October theatrical release after its Venice Film Festival appearance. Its central warning remains framed as a possibility, not an established use of the data.

Gibney raises the prospect that DOGE-era information could be moved, combined with AI, and used for political influence, but his wording stops short of saying that has happened.

'My views on AI are complicated... It's a powerful technology,' Gibney said. He added that the greater concern was how people manipulate it, particularly when control rests with 'a very few powerful, reckless, and unaccountable hands.'