Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Forgotten AI Summit

In 2002, artificial Intelligence was still in winter. Despite decades of effort, the dreams of confer computers with human cognition and an understanding of the real world had not materialized. To search for a path to follow, a small group of scientists gathered for “the symposium of St. Thomas Common Sense”. The Ai Pioneer Marvin Minsky was the central presence, as well as its Protected Pushpinder Singh. After the symposium, Minsky, Singh and the renowned philosopher Aaron Sloman published an article on group ideas on how to reach human AI.

The newspaper talks about the difficulties of AI of the beginning of the century. But a sentence really stands out today. In a brief paragraph of thanks, the authors say: “This meeting was made possible by the generous support of Jeffrey Epstein.” The symposium itself, in fact, took place in the Virgin Islands, which houses the now noting island of Epstein. Looking at this event reveals something about the state of the AI, as well as the execrable donor of the symposium.

The shame of technological and scientific communities, a Vorace sexual predator has managed to buy his way in relations with some of the most important and most influential personalities in the field. Epstein connections, which included Bill Gates and Minsky, were compared to exhaustively. In a deposition, the survivor of Epstein Virginia Giuffre alleged that she was invited to have sex with Minsky on the island of Epstein; The wife of Minsky – who says that she accompanied the scientist when he visited Epstein and that they did not go to the New York and Palm Beach residences – vehemently denied the accusation, which was made shortly before the death of Minsky and was not revealed until much later. Epstein died in prison in 2019 (do not ask me to break the theories of the conspiracy in a joy in evenings), and Giuffre tragically followed in 2025.

For the vast majority of Epstein links in science and technology, the professional association with a sexual predator has become an embarrassing, even overwhelming fact. Epstein has penetrated the interior circles of these worlds, funding small rallies assisted by daring names. (I was myself at the famous 2002 “billionaire dinner” in Ted where Epstein mixed with Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, singer Naomi Judd and eminent scientists, including some who stole on the Epstein plane.) An entry point to these circles was the literary agent John Brockman, whose list of customers included the best names in science. Epstein largely funded the Foundation of Brockman’s non -profit sciences.

One of my source who knew that Epstein explained that the financier seemed really fascinated by scientists. The source claims to have no knowledge of his crimes. They agreed to discuss Epstein only on condition of anonymity. “I lived it as this eccentric rich guy who liked to surround himself with interesting people and scientists and who had a lot of questions about the world,” said the source. “He was also interested in the personality of the scientist as in the work of the scientist.” Epstein himself apparently understood why he was welcomed in these circles. “I am not more than a science lover,” he told journalist Jeffrey Mervis in 2017. “But the money I understand, [and] I am a very good mathematician.

Invite only

Epstein’s spectrum throws a dark shadow on the 2002 symposium. But how did the event even become? My source gave me the unrectedly declared substantive framework. “Jeffrey said how loved it was of Marvin and how much he liked to talk to him about AI,” said the source. During these years, the subject was not very popular. “It was a time when people were really skeptical about whether AI had legs,” said my source. The idea therefore came to welcome a small gathering of AI with Minsky in the center. (It is not clear if the funding of the event came from a donation of $ 100,000 made by Epstein to support the research of Minksy.)

After a few deliberations, it was decided that the event was focused on the ideas of the Star Star of Minsky, Singh. In 1996, Singh had written a short article entitled “Why Ai failed”. To obtain a human intelligence, he argued: “We need systems with common sense knowledge and flexible means of using it. The problem is that the construction of such systems is equivalent to “solving AI”. (Bill Gates saw the article and commented: “I think your observations on the field of AI are correct.”)

Presumably, St. Thomas’ symposium was a way to deal with the front problem. But the event was difficult to organize. A first list of possible participants lacked stars power and had to be increased. Finally, the list of guests grew up to include Roger Schank, a famous AI theorist whose Billology was spoiled by attending the event and serving a brief fate as a learning director of Trump University. Another participant was Doug Lenat, the inventor of the ambitious CYC project, which involved humans who carefully type explanations of everyday objects in a database for AI research. Vernor Vinge was also present, a science fiction writer who is credited with the concept of the singularity of AI. The British philosopher Sloman, who was now approaching 90 years, was one of the last additions. “I was not doing on the list of Epstein invitations,” he sent me an email earlier this week. “I was added to Marvin Minsky’s suggestion, in part because at that time, I help supervise his student (Push Singh).” Sloman says that his memory of the event is weak. But, he recalls: “I seem to remember that Epstein has provided sumptuous resources, in particular by using a private plane to bring us to the location.”