In 2002, synthetic intelligence was nonetheless in winter. Regardless of many years of effort, desires of bestowing computer systems with humanlike cognition and real-world understanding had not materialized. To search for a method ahead, a small group of scientists gathered for “The St. Thomas Frequent Sense Symposium.” AI pioneer Marvin Minsky was the central presence, alongside together with his protégé Pushpinder Singh. After the symposium, Minsky, Singh, and famend thinker Aaron Sloman revealed a paper on the group’s concepts for the right way to attain humanlike AI.
The paper speaks to the struggles of early-century AI. However one sentence actually stands out at present. In a short paragraph of acknowledgements, the authors say, “This assembly was made doable by the beneficiant assist of Jeffrey Epstein.” The symposium itself, in reality, was held within the Virgin Islands, residence of Epstein’s now-notorious island retreat. Wanting again at this occasion reveals one thing concerning the state of AI—in addition to the symposium’s execrable funder.
To the disgrace of the expertise and science communities, a voracious sexual predator managed to purchase his method into relationships with a few of the most outstanding and influential figures within the subject. Epstein’s connections, which included Invoice Gates and Minsky, have been exhaustively documented. In a deposition, Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre alleged she was 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 solely went to the New York and Palm Seaside residences—has vehemently denied the cost, which was made shortly earlier than Minsky’s dying and was not revealed till a lot later. Epstein died in jail in 2019 (don’t ask me to interrupt down the conspiracy theories in a single measly parenthesis), and Giuffre tragically took her personal life in 2025.
For the overwhelming majority of Epstein’s connections in science and tech, skilled affiliation with a sexual predator turned an embarrassing, even damning, reality. Epstein penetrated the inside circles of those worlds, funding small gatherings attended by bold-faced names. (I actually was on the infamous 2002 “Billionaire Dinner” at TED the place Epstein mingled with Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, singer Naomi Judd, and outstanding scientists, together with some who flew in on Epstein’s aircraft.) One entry level to these circles was literary agent John Brockman, whose shopper listing included high names in science. Epstein largely funded Brockman’s nonprofit science-oriented basis.
A supply of mine who knew Epstein nicely defined that the financier appeared genuinely fascinated by scientists. The supply claims to don’t have any information of his crimes. They agreed to debate Epstein solely on the situation of anonymity. “I skilled him as this eccentric, rich man who preferred to encompass himself with fascinating individuals and scientists and who had a whole lot of questions concerning the world,” the supply says. “He was as within the persona of the scientist as he was with the scientist’s work.” Epstein himself apparently understood why he was welcomed in these circles. “I am no more than a hobbyist in science,” he informed journalist Jeffrey Mervis in 2017. “However cash I perceive, [and] I am a fairly good mathematician.”
Invite Solely
Epstein’s spectre casts a darkish shadow on the 2002 symposium. However how did the occasion even come to be? My supply gave me the beforehand unreported backstory. “Jeffrey used to say how fond he was of Marvin and the way a lot he cherished speaking to him about AI,” the supply says. In these years, the topic wasn’t extremely popular. “It was a time when individuals have been actually skeptical about whether or not AI had legs,” my supply stated. So the thought arose to host a small AI gathering with Minsky on the heart. (It’s not clear whether or not the funding for the occasion got here from a $100,000 donation made by Epstein to assist Minksy’s analysis.)
After some deliberation, it was determined the occasion would heart on concepts from Minsky’s star scholar, Singh. In 1996, Singh had written a brief paper referred to as “Why AI Failed.” To get humanlike intelligence, he argued, “we’d like programs with commonsense information and versatile methods to make use of it. The difficulty is that constructing such programs quantities to ’fixing AI.’” As robust as that’s, he wrote, “we’ve no alternative however to face it head on.” (Invoice Gates noticed the paper and commented, “I feel your observations concerning the AI subject are right.”)
Presumably, the St. Thomas symposium was one solution to face the issue head-on. However the occasion was arduous to arrange. An early listing of doable members lacked star energy and needed to be augmented. Finally, the visitor listing grew to incorporate Roger Schank, a celebrated AI theorist whose obituary was marred by attending the occasion and by serving a short spell as chief studying officer of Trump College. One other participant was Doug Lenat, the inventor of the formidable CYC venture, which concerned people painstakingly typing explanations of on a regular basis objects right into a database for AI analysis. Additionally in attendance was Vernor Vinge, a science fiction author who’s credited with the idea of the AI singularity. UK thinker Sloman, now approaching 90, was one of many later additions. “I used to be not on Epstein’s unique invitation listing,” he emailed me earlier this week. “I used to be added on the suggestion of Marvin Minsky, partly as a result of by then I used to be serving to to oversee his scholar (Push Singh).” Sloman says his reminiscence of the occasion is weak. However, he remembers, “I appear to do not forget that Epstein supplied lavish sources, together with utilizing a personal aircraft to get us to the placement.”
