MrBeast’s “repugnant” AI baby tweet sparks fury, memes, and existential dread

James Donaldson, better known as the YouTuber MrBeast, posted an AI image of himself with his fiancée and future kids to jeers and horror. He claimed that his fiance, gaming streamer Thea Booysen, sent him the blurry image in order to suggest that she wants to have his children.

MrBeast’s AI children

MrBeast posted the fake photo to X on Saturday and rapidly gained over 15.7 million views. This isn’t necessarily unusual considering his popularity, boasting over 33 million followers on the platform.

Donaldson also tends to get at least some hate no matter what he posts due to his history. First, people accused him of exploiting unhoused and disabled people for views instead of giving charitably out of sheer kindness. When he started making brutal challenge videos instead, things got a lot darker.

The addition of generative AI to the mix drew additional ire to this recent post. The photo, which is incredibly blurry for some reason, shows Donaldson and Booysen smiling for the camera with two young and happy children.

“My fiancé sent me this AI generated image of us with two kids,” MrBeast wrote. “I can’t quite put my finger on it but something tells me she wants something.”

Later on Saturday, Booysen replied to the post with a similar image featuring three kids.

“WHY DO YOU KEEP ADDING MORE,” asked Donaldson.

“The worst tweet of all time”

People have accused both AI and MrBeast of exploiting others, including stealing their labor for profit. A class action lawsuit filed in September 2024 claims that Beast Games contestants were not paid for their participation as promised, plus experienced mistreatment and sexual harassment.

The idea of a new generations of beasts dreamed up by what some call a content theft machine resulted in heavy condemnation of the post.

X user @fyridk said “they’re calling it the worst tweet of all time.”

“The number of things I find repugnant about this one tweet should qualify for a world record,” agreed @GianmarcoSoresi.

Some referenced his dystopian YouTube challenges in their responses.

“Tell her you’ll give it to her if she can stay inside of a red circle for 24 hours,” joked @BradleyLister4.

User @canc3l_cultur3 thinks that Donaldson “should have 100 children and make them compete for his love.”

Many felt that the AI image represented a kind of horror previously only known in fiction. User @owenbroadcast wrote that “once again we must review that normal people are now exposed to things every day that would, literally, previously have only been madness inducing items from fairy tales and ancient legends.”

Meanwhile, @uncledoomer wondered, “what if you could stare into the abyss at your convenience and have it generate whatever you wanted to stare back at you.”

“You just know there a guy out there whose wife died and now he’s descending into madness doing this all day,” @JustinWhang added.