In 2002, synthetic intelligence was once nonetheless in wintry weather. In spite of a long time of effort, goals of bestowing computer systems with human-like cognition and real-world working out had now not materialized. To search for some way ahead, a small staff of scientists collected for “The St. Thomas Not unusual Sense Symposium.” AI pioneer Marvin Minsky was once the central presence, along side his protégé Pushpinder Singh. After the symposium, Minsky, Singh, and famend thinker Aaron Sloman revealed a paper at the staff’s concepts for the way to succeed in human-like AI.
The paper speaks to the struggles of early-century AI. However one sentence in reality stands proud lately. In a short lived paragraph of acknowledgements, the authors say, “This assembly was once made conceivable by way of the beneficiant strengthen of Jeffrey Epstein.” The symposium itself, in reality, was once held within the Virgin Islands, house of Epstein’s now-notorious island retreat. Taking a look again at this tournament finds one thing in regards to the state of AI—in addition to the symposium’s execrable funder.
To the disgrace of the era and science communities, a voracious sexual predator controlled to shop for his manner into relationships with probably the most maximum distinguished and influential figures within the box. Epstein’s connections, which integrated Invoice Gates and Minsky, had been exhaustively documented. In a deposition, Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre alleged she was once directed to have intercourse with Minsky at Epstein’s island; Minsky’s spouse—who says she accompanied the scientist when he visited Epstein, and that they just went to the New York and Palm Seashore flats—has vehemently denied the price, which was once made in a while earlier than Minsky’s demise and was once now not printed till a lot later. Epstein died in jail in 2019 (don’t inquire from me to wreck down the conspiracy theories in a single measly paragraph) and Giuffre tragically took her personal existence in 2025.
For nearly all of Epstein’s connections in science and tech, skilled affiliation with a sexual predator become an embarrassing, even damning, reality. Epstein penetrated the internal circles of those worlds, investment small gatherings attended by way of bold-faced names. (I personally was once on the infamous 2002 “Billionaire Dinner” at TED the place Epstein mingled with Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, singer Naomi Judd, and distinguished scientists, together with some who flew in on Epstein’s aircraft.) One access level to these circles was once literary agent John Brockman, whose consumer checklist integrated best names in science. Epstein in large part funded Brockman’s nonprofit science-oriented basis.
A supply of mine who knew Epstein neatly defined that the financier gave the impression in actuality enthusiastic about scientists. The supply says they’d no wisdom of his crimes. They agreed to speak about Epstein handiest at the situation of anonymity. “I skilled him as this eccentric, rich man who preferred to enclose himself with attention-grabbing other folks and scientists and who had numerous questions in regards to the international,” the supply says. “He was once as within the persona of the scientist as he was once with the scientist’s paintings.” Epstein himself it appears understood why he was once welcomed in the ones circles. “I am no more than a hobbyist in science,” he informed journalist Jeffrey Mervis in 2017. “However cash I perceive, [and] I am an attractive just right mathematician.”
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Epstein’s spectre casts a dismal shadow at the 2002 symposium. However how did the development even come to be? My supply gave me the prior to now unreported backstory. “Jeffrey used to mention how fond he was once of Marvin and what sort of he liked chatting with him about AI,” the supply says. In the ones years, the topic wasn’t highly regarded. “It was once a time when other folks had been truly skeptical about whether or not AI had legs,” my supply stated. So the theory arose to host a small AI amassing with Minsky on the heart. (It’s now not transparent whether or not the investment for the development got here from a $100,000 donation made by way of Epstein to strengthen Minksy’s analysis.)
After some deliberation, it was once made up our minds the development would heart on concepts from Minsky’s superstar scholar, Singh. In 1996, Singh had written a brief paper referred to as “Why AI Failed.” To get human-like intelligence, he argued, “we’d like techniques with commonsense wisdom and versatile techniques to make use of it. The difficulty is that development such techniques quantities to ’fixing AI.’” As tricky as this is, he wrote, “We don’t have any selection however to stand it head on.” (Invoice Gates noticed the paper and commented, “I feel your observations in regards to the AI box are right kind.”)
Possibly, the St. Thomas symposium was once one solution to face the issue head-on. However the tournament was once onerous to prepare. An early checklist of conceivable individuals lacked superstar energy and needed to be augmented. Sooner or later, the visitor checklist grew to incorporate Roger Schank, a celebrated AI theorist whose obituary was once marred by way of attending the development and by way of serving a short lived spell as leader finding out officer of Trump College. Any other player was once Doug Lenat, the inventor of the formidable CYC undertaking, which concerned people painstakingly typing explanations of on a regular basis gadgets right into a database for AI analysis. Additionally in attendance was once Vernor Vinge, a science fiction creator who’s credited with the concept that of the AI singularity. UK thinker Sloman, now drawing near 90, was once one of the vital later additions. “I used to be now not on Epstein’s unique invitation checklist,” he emailed me previous this week. “I used to be added on the recommendation of Marvin Minsky, in part as a result of by way of then I used to be serving to to oversee his scholar (Push Singh).” Sloman says his reminiscence of the development is susceptible. However, he remembers, “I appear to understand that Epstein equipped lavish sources, together with the use of a personal aircraft to get us to the site.”
