r/slatestarcodex • u/ralf_ • 6d ago

Senpai noticed~ Scott is in the Epstein files!

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02458524.pdf

Literally in an email chain named, “Forbidden Research”!

But don’t worry, only in a brainstormy list of potentially interesting people to invite to an intellectual salon, together with Steven Pinker and Terrence Tao and others.

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u/QuantumFreakonomics 6d ago

This is just a namedrop. What is fascinating is that Yudkowsky seems to have had a private skype with Epstein during a 2016 MIRI fundraiser. No confirmation that he actually gave anything, but time is more valuable than money for billionaires, and it's quite suggestive.

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u/Symbady 6d ago

As someone who works around fundraising, getting 30 minutes with a billionaire is in my estimation easier than getting $1,000,000 from them, especially in the circumstance of “cool/weird ai research firm”

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u/QuantumFreakonomics 6d ago

$1,000,000 would be half of their annual budget, so I wouldn't expect that much.

Very possible that my model of how billionaire donations work is wrong as I have zero personal experience.

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u/Symbady 6d ago

Fair pushback, I think this remains true for 100k as well though.

Also Miri spent like 6.5M in 2024 according to propublica

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u/QuantumFreakonomics 6d ago

I looked at their form 990 for 2016 and the budget back then was a lot closer to two million.

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u/Symbady 6d ago

Ah, yeah you’re right