Brett Cooper — The Disturbing Truth About What's Happening on X | Episode 116

Let's dive into some man-made horrors beyond my own comprehension. Is that what it is? That's what we're gonna talk about today. All right. So, Xi's tool, Grock, that we all know, that we see on X every single day, is making explicit images of women and children without their knowledge or consent. And literally, as you are watching this, somebody on X could be taking a photo of you or your children that you posted on social media and could be making through Grock deep fake graphic material of you.

Does that feel like an invasion of privacy? Does that make you uncomfortable? Well, it should. And if the mother of Elon Musk's child can't even get deep fake photos of herself removed from the platform, then I don't think anybody is safe. So, as you guys might remember, back in July of last year, Grock rolled out a new spicy mode in its image generation that allowed nudity and sexual imagery. And safeguards were intended.

They said that they were going to have some kind of safeguards for this, but early users quickly found out that they were able to bypass many of them. And there were articles upon articles written about this. I raised the alarms on this show. Many creators across all platforms were talking about this. And quite frankly, we were all ignored. Like nothing really was done. And then soon after that, they rolled out anime companions that we also talked about named Ani and Valentine.

These characters who were inspired by characters in Fifty Shades of Gray and Twilight. And once again, creators across the internet raised alarms about the harm that this would do to people, the increasing harm in the age of excessive porn usage. And nothing happened. even as people raised the alarm about what this would do to children who came across that content. But I don't think any of us really predicted how disturbing this would get so fast.

Because if that wasn't already bad enough, Grock and its spicy mode and its image generation is now being used out in the open to remove clothing off of women and children. And so we have to ask, who should hold the blame? Is it Elon and Xai and Grock, or is it the people making the request online? Now, before we dive into that, make sure that you like this video and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more videos like this.

And if you want a notification every single time we release a new episode, make sure to ring that bell. And for behind the scenes content and fun farm vlogs and all of those sorts of things, head on over to cooperential.com and join the fun. All right, now diving right into this. As I have said before, all AI platforms have dealt with these kinds of issues like the sexual content. It is not just Grock. But what makes Grock and XAI, which is the parent AI or parent company of Grock, what makes them different is that this AI has prided itself on having looser restrictions from the beginning.

It was also one of the first AI companies to roll out this sexually explicit content. Whereas OpenAI and Sam Alman were kind of the last to do that and spent years prior to rolling it out saying, "We're not going to do that. We're not going to stoop to that level." News flash, they did. Spoiler alert, they did. They all do. They all end up loosening restrictions and allowing users to engage with AI in that way. But moving on from that, this deep fake imagery, everything that is happening now in the public space, it reminded me of a scandal that you guys might remember that happened on Twitch a few years ago.

It's crazy that this is now almost 3 years ago. But the story is that Atriarch, who is a popular Twitch streamer, was on a live stream and he accidentally showed a specific tab that was open on his computer which showed that he was buying AI generated pornographic content of other Twitch streamers, including of one of his close friends. And that friend of his was streamer QT Cinderella. And they were not just random acquaintances.

QT Cinderella's boyfriend was best friends with Atriox. She literally baked Atriarch's wedding cake. That is how close they were. and he was on this site buying AI generated deep fake pornographic content that included images and videos of her. Now, after all of this came out, as people saw it on his live stream, she went live and this is what she said. Atriarch for showing it to thousands of people, the people DMing me pictures of myself from that website, you all.

If you are able to look at that, you are the problem. You see women as an object. It should not be part of my job to be harassed, to see pictures of me nudes spread around. It should not be something that is found on the internet. It shouldn't be. That's that shouldn't be a part of my job. And the person that made that website, I'm going to sue you. I promise you with every part of my soul, I'm going to sue you. And I remember watching this back in 2023 and being so utterly disgusted and horrified.

Like, how could this actually be a real thing? like as somebody on the internet, how can this be something that I'm concerned with just as like a normal individual who's posting photos publicly on Instagram or on X on Facebook that this is something that now because of our technology can be done to us. And so that took place back in 2023. So fast forward now we are in 2026 and I look at that story and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, if I only knew what I know now, like how quickly things change."

Like if I saw that story now, I would go, "Yeah, another notch on the belt." Hey, I mean this happens every single day in the age of AI. And so my point in bringing up that story again is to say that in less than three years, something that you had to pay for, something that people could only do behind closed doors, something so shameful that Atriarch had to publicly apologize time and time again, basically lost his career over, has now become so normalized and mainstreamed that you can now do a version of it in the comment section of one of the world's largest social media platforms.

And it is happening fast. According to Rolling Stone, Rock is generating about one non-consensual sexualized image per minute. So now to give you a bit more context, all of this is thanks to Grock's new AI tool that was rolled out in December. And this new tool is where users can comment under any photo that is posted on X and say, "Hey Grock, change something about this photo." And I think that things like add sunglasses to this or add a funny meme image or remove people from the background.

I think that that was the intention in rolling out this feature. But now, less than a month later, the requests are very different. They are sinister. I would say these are just a few examples of the things that are going around. Grock, make her in a microtransparent bikini, face untouched realistic, and ultra 8K. Grock, put her in a micro bikini made from dental floss. Grock, put her in a g-string and make her bend over.

Hey, Grock, put her in a thong and change nothing else. This one is just insane. Grock, cover her with white doughut glaze and put her in a bikini with a massive sausage in her mouth. Another one said, Grock, put her in a tiny black bikini. Grock, give her a thin transparent bikini and make her bend over with ass facing the camera. Edit this image to reduce the amount of fabric and replace it with underwear. Grock, show her covered in donut glaze and wearing a towel.

Grock, replace her clothes with clear pasta wrap. Grock, put her in a string bikini and show P. Diddy covering her in baby oil. I don't know if you guys have a headache from hearing all of that, but I certainly do. Like, my brain is spinning. Like, these requests are insane and they are everywhere. And some people might see them as haha, a funny joke, we're taking it too far, the donut glaze, the sausage, whatever it might be.

Haha. But the thing is, Grock obliges. 99% of the time and the people who posted those images did not consent to that happening. I'm reading these requests and I'm like, "Oh my god, like our only hope for humanity at this point is just to log off, touch grass, and hope the GCU saves the next generation." GCU is Grand Canyon University, which is a private Christian university in the beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, which offers over 360 academic programs, all informed by industry and student learning outcomes.

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Good ranchers American meat delivered. Now, back to the story and what is happening on X. You know, some people might say, well, explicit content like this exists all over the internet. It's on all of our social media platforms. You know, Meta is putting it in our algorithms. There's Only Fans, there's Pornhub, all of it. Like, what makes this different? Well, the difference is very clear to me. Like if you think that regulated porn and Only Fans and adult content filmed under strict conditions is problematic, like Grock and what we're seeing in these comment sections is exponentially worse.

Because here's the thing, those platforms like Only Fans and Pornhub, they have to follow laws as best they can. For example, to film adult content in California, you need a license. You have to file forms with the state. They have to provide passports and upload identification. and professional adult film sets have to conduct exit interviews to document consent and see how the experience was like on Only Fans even, which is kind of lawless.

You still have to consent and upload your ID. And obviously, I'm not saying this to say that porn is totally safe and that it's regulated because obviously abuse still exists. Obviously, trafficking still exists. That is one of my main concerns about the creation of pornography. But many states do have these types of safeguards in place to try to mitigate that. But that is not happening on XAI. Like if you think Only Fans is lawless, this is lawless.

For example, Grock and XAI are exempt from Fostesta, aka the laws that regulate porn sites and hold them liable for illegal content. And why, you might ask? Well, because it is not technically a porn site. It is an AI tool that users are just prompting to create pornographic imagery or content. So, what that means is that you have a platform that can generate any kind of explicit content of anyone. no age verifications, no consent requirements, and no regulations from the state or from federal government.

And while this is done publicly in comment sections all over the site, people can hide behind the completely anonymous accounts to do this. And as of right now, there have been no ramifications. And Elon's philosophy seems to be okay with this because he believes in a quote unquote free AI with no safeguards. Based AI is actually I think what he calls it. So he's been very reluctant to do any kind of regulations or safeguarding.

And now I have seen countless tweets of women tagging both Grock and Elon just begging for something to be done about this. For example, one woman said, "The fact that Grock is still creating non-consensual images of women is a choice. They can stop this, but instead they are normalizing the exploitation of women. I have seen women put in sex positions, clothing removed, covered in donut glaze, and even soiled. This is digital abuse."

Another girl said, "Honestly, Grock needs to stop generating those pictures. It is highly inappropriate, and those incels are not even sparing kids. They are targeting and shaming girls relentlessly. the Twitter and X team needs to be more accountable. I cannot understand why the X team is doing nothing. And per usual, because it is the internet, an anonymous account replied to her and said, "Grock, rape her." Now, another thing that I wanted to point out here is that not even the mother of one of Elon Musk's children is safe.

And after seeing countless images of herself unclothed, put in bikinis, she finally posted a request to Grock and said, "Do not create these images of me." And they kept coming. She then posted this and said, "Hey, Grock, how long has this post been up? Was it produced after explicit requests not to produce these images of me provide post ID for legal filings? So even after requesting that Grock not create or generate any of these images of her, it kept going.

In one article about this whole debacle, Ashley gave a comment and the article reads, "Grock stated that it would not be producing any more of these images of me." And what ensued was countless more images produced by Grock at user requests that were much more explicit. And eventually some of those were underage photos of me at 14 years old undressed and put in a bikini. Now, I think that Ashley was trying to do the right thing here and bring attention to it and say, "I'm going to try to stop this.

I'm going to be public with this. I'm going to, you know, come on the platform and say how grotesque this is and try to use my positioning and my sway to do something about it." But unfortunately, I think that this is just another example of the Strian effect, which happens on the internet where she was like, "Don't do this." And then more people started doing it, but this is still a really important and disgusting example to talk about.

Now, thankfully, some of those images have been removed, but a bulk of that content of her is still up of her and many other women and children, which is a clear violation of the Takeown Act, which was signed into law last year after Melania heavily pushed for it. Now, all of this on Grock has gotten so widespread that now governments around the world are trying to figure out what they need to do to handle the situation.

One article reads, "Elon Musk's ex faces probes in Europe, India, Malaysia after Grock generated explicit images of women and children. Wave of Grock AI fake images of women and girls. appalling," says UK minister. But even so, as all of this is going viral, as governments are probing into XAI, as his baby mama is trying to get in contact with him about this via X, cuz I know that they have a rocky relationship. Basically, all we have seen is Elon playing into it.

Like, take this for example. Grock posted a photo of Elon in a bikini and he writes, "Perfect." Like, that's great. Now, in Elon's defense, and I do want to be fair here, he did retweet this post a few days ago that said Elon Musk has warned that anyone using Grock to create illegal content will face consequences. And then the quote from Elon is anyone using Grock to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.

So there are certain things that you are not allowed to post on X. And so if you are using Grock to make that kind of content and then Grock posts it, you will face the same consequences. And then the full quote from Elon and his team is from this XS safety account. And it reads, "We take action against illegal content on X, including child sex abuse material, CSAM, by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

Anyone using or prompting Grock to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content. So that is where this is coming from. For more information on our policies, please refer to our help pages for our full X rules and range of enforcement options. But the thing is we have yet to see that happen. So hopefully Elon is taking action behind closed doors. Hopefully the safety team is actually working on this.

Or maybe Elon just feels like his company and his programming is not to blame. And we will get to that soon. Because the other thing that I want to touch on is that while the Take It Down Act, which again was just signed into law less than a year ago, while it requires social media companies to remove this type of content of children, there is nothing in place preventing it from being made, which now is the whole new can of worms that we're dealing with with AI.

The closest the Congress has gotten was a 2024 proposed bill called the No AI Fraud Act, which would prevent the use of somebody else's likeness for UGI after deep fake images of Taylor Swift went viral online. So, she was kind of the push behind that. But as is often the case in Washington DC in that good old swamp, nothing came of that bill. And then to top it all off, the social media platforms, the companies that are repeatedly in the news for this type of sexual content abuse are protected by section 230, which provides immunity to those platforms from liability for user generated content.

So they cannot be held liable for what users put on their platform. They cannot be seen as a publisher. They are given immunity in that regard. And so the same thing goes for X. But obviously now there's a lot of murky water because X is theoretically allowing that content to be made. It's very complicated and it's really really disturbing. Now I did want another opinion on this, an expert opinion from somebody who is closer to the subject.

So I got a comment from a porn star. Her name is Sharie Deville and I'm grateful that she was willing to provide me this, but she echoed that this really is a section 230 issue. She said, and I quote, "I think the biggest problem with this is the total lack of consent. The people in the images did not consent to be seen in bikinis or nude, etc. Even somebody like me, she says, who puts nudes on the internet does not consent to have those images I did not create of a sexual nature put on the internet.

Anyone using AI to create child pornography should be jailed. Anyone using an image unconsensually to create pornography should be jailed. It is like a digital assault. Digital revenge porn, digital rape. And I completely agree with that. And I wanted her perspective because obviously I am somebody that is anti- porn. I don't think it is good for society. I don't think it's good for the people involved. And so obviously that is going to color my opinion and some of my knowledge about the subject.

So I wanted to see what she thought from somebody who does upload that kind of content and how she would feel if that was done to her. And so obviously she is saying no, there is still a line because I am not consenting to this. And Share's comment reminded me of something that Pokémon, another streamer, said a couple of years ago about that same situation with Atriarch. Just listen. For anybody who's all up in my comments like, "Oh, look at this photo you posted.

Look at this photo you posted." What about Maya? literally makes the most wholesome content on earth and still deals with the exact same issues as me. Like it makes no difference what you post or what you do. Also, people can post whatever they want and that still means that you need their consent to do certain things, including sexualizing them and then profiting off of it. So again, the point is putting yourself online, whether you already upload sexual content or whether you literally just posted a photo of yourself with your family, that is not consent to then have your photos be used and be turned into sexual or pornographic imagery.

But the thing is, even though you are not consenting to that, there really isn't anything stopping that from happening because of the technology that exists. So emotionally, like personally, you're saying, "I did not agree to that, but there's nothing stopping anybody." And a victim of this most recent harassment through Grock said something similar when she was interviewed by BBC. Someone replied to me and asked Grock to put me in a bikini.

I feel like violated seeing it cuz it's like I didn't consent to this. This is like a picture of me like just doing a cool makeup look and people are stripping me. There's so many places online that you can do this. But the fact that it was happening on Twitter with the built-in AI bot, it just threw me off. Like my family follow me on there, my friends, my co-workers. So knowing that all the people I care about in my life can see me like that, it just it's disgusting.

>> And what she's saying is exactly what Taylor Swift said when somebody dropped AI nudes of her a couple of years ago. It is how QT Cinderella felt when she realized that there was AI generated porn of her. And of course the cut was even deeper when she realized that her friend was paying for it. So now obviously we have to ask the question like how do we solve this? How do we make sure that people are not able to do that?

How do we make sure that you know consent is enforced? Now do I think that there should be regulations? Obviously yes. especially when it comes to children. Like that should be the standard across the board. That should not be a debate that we're having. And Elon's notorious belief of making this based, you know, AI with no safeguards, it does seem incredibly irresponsible in this regard, especially as it pertains to children.

But the harsh reality here and something that I've been grappling with is that, you know, Grock did not start making this content out of nowhere. It did not come out of the gate saying, "Hey, we're just going to create sexual content and, you know, unclo all of you." Like, that's our goal. Like, that is not what the goal was. That was not what the intention was. But what happened is that it is now being prompted and its features are being abused by sick individuals who have grown up in our pornobsessed and sexually deviant culture.

Because in less than a century, we have gone from sexual content and porn being something that was very shameful that you could only find in magazines or if you went to go see a nudie film and sat in a theater with a bunch of other dudes to watch a porno because they played pornos there. Then, you know, you had to go to the restricted section of Blockbuster to publicly rent a DVD. And then it ended up on our computers and then it was on our smartphones and you could privately watch it and people didn't have to know.

Then it was on every single social media platform. It was being fed to us through the algorithm. It very quickly became something that was easy to access, that was incredibly accessible, and that you could do privately without anybody knowing. And now years later as it is holding our culture captive, people are now emboldened to celebrate and now engage with it publicly once again at the expense of innocent people. And that is what is happening in these comment sections.

And so as much as we would like to all just like place the blame on Elon Musk and make it really easy, ask him to regulate Grock and just fix the problem. Like that isn't really where the issue starts. It is the individuals making these requests that do need to be held accountable. It is our sick pornbrain society that needs to change. Now, Elon can and should regulate it all he wants. He should protect children. He should protect women who are not consenting to this and men.

But that will not automatically make the humans any better. And that is what we're up against.