What happened to X?
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Warning: this episode has talk of sexual abuse involving women and children. Viewer discretion advised.
If you’re amongst the more level-headed of us human meatsacks out there, you probably aren’t on X. Unfortunately, a lot of the world is. Which makes it all the more disturbing that X (formerly Twitter) became a tool for turning photos into AI-generated doom porn at the start of the year. What? Huh? How did this happen? Let’s take a looksie.
Featuring interviews with:
Ashley St. Clair, Media Figure:
Follow Ashley: https://www.instagram.com/asc.sys/
Madison (@gigglypuff), Software engineer and Twitch streamer
Follow Madison: https://linktr.ee/xgigglypuff
John Herrman, Tech Reporter at New York Magazine
Read John’s work: https://nymag.com/author/john-herrman/
Special thanks to Hayden Field, Genevieve Oh, Jen Walsh and David Ryan Polgar
Writers / creators: Jack Stebbins, Henry Stockwell, Dan Toomey
Audience development: Jen Walsh
Thumbnail designer: Tom Grillo
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@GoodWorkMB
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Correction: we put the interview at 5:50 as happening in 2025. That was a mistake. Come on you've never made that mistake? It's the beginning of the year and you're like "no way we're in a new year" so you put 2025 because that's what you've been doing for a literal year before? You've tooootaly done that. It can't just be me. Not a chance. You've 100% done that before. If you say you haven't ever done that I literally do not believe you.
Anyway our apologies it was 2028.
@werilwind
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
one of the most talented, creative people on the internet sharing a stage with Dan Toomey, wow!
@essennagerry
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
How about people who know how to code program drones to go bomb Elon's AI datacenters?
@PineappleStickers
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
10:45 My friend showed us how his Tesla had an "Unhinged" mode and it IMMEDIATELY started trying to voice sext us. The most disturbingly graphic, unappealing wattpad/reddit version of what it things sexting is
@stray_editori
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
I love this guy but I truly do wonder if he gives these people a heads-up that he's gonna ask something random or if he's just that chaotic
@robertfoertsch
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Deployed Worldwide Through The TRUTH Network…
Thanks 🙏 ❤
@WhoopidieDooda-nk7fe
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
What happened to X you ask? It became Y
@takingcareofbusinessloco
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
11:36 99.9% chance has an OF
@Splucked
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Q: What happened to X?
A. Elon Musk.
Mystery solved.
@Laurentinio1
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Just found this channel, quality stuff!
@BobWallice
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
What does anyone think asking grok to not post things has any effect on it whatsoever. It's not a central intelligence agent it's an LLM and it doesn't work that way. The conversations are not connected like that.
@2010-BTC-yep
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Who are the men that want everyone harmed or embarrassed?? Who are they?
@2010-BTC-yep
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Who had the sick notion?
@2010-BTC-yep
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Who made the ask?
@2010-BTC-yep
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Who prompted
@willberg12
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
I guess your audience leans lib snowflake
@willberg12
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
lol, I think it's actually pretty funny 🤷🏻
@thechecker111
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
They are asking Grok to stop doing that? A "software engineer" is asking an instance of Grok on X to stop doing that?
We are cooked man.
@Brian-li5up
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
I appreciate how you took a step back when you talked about having to take a step back. Absolute masterclass in reporting.
@maxheadrom3088
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
That was a hard interview, Mr. Toomey. I admire your accomplishment! You could play poker profeesionally or become a monk with a vow of silence … you can do anything. If I was in front of the lady in the blue dress and black long leather boots … I don't know … I would explode or melt … something like that.
@maxheadrom3088
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
I'm almost sure Mr. Lance Holt was on Saturday Night Live … it's he, isn't it?
@wootenblatz
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
@3:58 LANCE ROTATE YOUR AIO LED SCREEN! IT IS UPSIDE DOWN!
@thehardyboys4227
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
This GROK BS is all over sh*tt*r, I mean twitter, blah X
@bustabeatz785
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Jeezum crow 😂
@isabellajones
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
X media It's become just another TikTok; you can never tell what's a lie or what's true. It's absolute garbage.
@SmickyD
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Now do bluesky!!
@DrVagax
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
The way she 'talked' to Grok in a stern way try to make it not do it again, as if her conversation would count for just about every other user using Grok is worrying since this clearly shows how she has no effing clue how a LLM works. It has no memory, the whole thing with LLM's is context window and how it can only hold a conversation worth X amount of tokens before it resets.
@kaverianuranjana9787
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
We got to switch to BluSky. All NLP academics have already switched to linkedin or BluSky already
@hardlife507
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Did everyone forget the genius was forced to buy twitter?!?!??
@antoniebrooks7776
May 13, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Why can't people just call it X- it is so dumb that people still have to mention Twitter- it is basically like being dead-named at this point.