There is a troubling phenomenon — endemic to humanity, it seems, if you look back at history — of people warning of disaster long before it hits, only to be ignored and left to watch helplessly as whatever horror they foretold becomes reality.

These people are frequently referred to as Cassandras — a reference to the mythic Cassandra of Troy, a priestess who was blessed to accurately predict the future but cursed to have nobody ever believe her. These predictions included things such as the Trojan horse — leading to the sack of Troy — and Odysseus’s ill-fated voyage home.

The endless noise of social media and general angst of our modern condition simultaneously raises the Cassandras’ volume and makes their voices less likely to be heard.

But one recurring, looping caution has penetrated the bubble for several years now: the rise of AI and the terrors it is likely to unleash upon our civilization.

We can now say that we have officially seen a hint of the truth of these predictions locally: a page-one story in today’s Express tells of a South Renovo man who allegedly created AI-generated child pornography.

This is more than bad enough, but he also “admitted to police he would use AI apps to create child pornography, including images involving a child under 10 he knew,” police said.

Let that sink in for a moment.

A local, otherwise presumbly average citizen — using generative AI technology to create child porn of a real youth in the community.

No special expertise was likely needed for this. This wasn’t something that would be too hard for others to replicate. That others, likely, aren’t already also doing.

Associated Press coverage of Grok Imagine, a generative AI program implanted into X, formerly known as Twitter, reported on the sheer banality with which this could be done.

“Grok, which is hosted on X, apparently began granting a large number of user requests to modify images posted by others, with requests such as ‘put her in a transparent bikini,'” an AP story from January states.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit which focuses on online antisemitism, child safety, misinformation and more, produced a report in January 2026 which asserted that once Grok’s image generator was unleashed at the end of December, it produced “approximately 3 million sexualized images, including 23,000 that appear to depict children.”

The report adds that over an 11-day period, Grok was producing sexualized images at an “estimated average pace of 190 per minute.”

To make that even more horrifying, this is only considering photorealistic images. Cartoon or otherwise illustrated images are on top of that number.

And now this digital hellscape has come to roost in Clinton County.

Of course, child abusers and predators have been a problem long before the advent of AI.

The man from South Renovo allegedly admitted that he had been viewing child porn for the past 15-16 years.

But the proliferation of AI amidst today’s generally loose moral standards adds new concerns to an already bountiful fields of horrors.

Now, images aren’t necessarily of random children from somewhere. They can be generated of specific children locally.

Children you may know.

The affected child doesn’t even have to be pressured or tricked to be photographed in a compromising position. AI can draw from any stray photo or social media profile and create a perversion of a person.

And, of course, all of this is happening against the backdrop of the Epstein files.

A sizable portion of our population apparently thinks that this is okay — or even laudatory.

Decent people have to cling to the hope that one day there will be consequences. But thusfar, instead we in America have been consigned to sit here and watch as the rest of the world at least pays lip service to justice and topples powerful figures who have been implicated in the Epstein files.

And, all the while, technology works tirelessly to ensure that the common man has the tools to be part of the deluxe pedophile club.

Where the rich and powerful have the money and tools necessary to live out their derangements — apparently above the law — the Average Joe can now supplement their reality with tech-fueled fiction, inserting thousands of needles into an ever-growing human haystack.

Obviously, some, like this confessed perpetrator, will be brought to light and hopefully attended to with justice.

But many more will doubtlessly go undetected: our friends, neighbors and coworkers who could at any moment be corrupting the likenesses of those around them into twisted images.

We aren’t sure what can be feasibly done at this point — to return again to the Greeks, Pandora’s Box is likely open, and we must now confront a world full of new and exotic evils.

But, much like Pandora’s Box, let us not forget hope: the hope that there are more of us than them, the hope that the wicked will eventually face consequences and the hope that for as much as our futurism and technology has empowered these woes, it may one day also contribute to neutering them.

In the mean time, be aware of this new sickness, and be vigilant.

Most of all, be kind.