Thiel, Musk, Gates: the tech elite emailing Jeffrey Epstein

Epstein enjoyed lunching and partying with tech CEOs. Are we surprised that tech products are now sexualizing children?

“Animals are fun to watch sometimes,” the pedophile and rapist Jeffrey Epstein wrote to venture capitalist Peter Thiel, after Thiel mentioned the zoo.

“:)” responds Thiel.

The latest Epstein Files, in so many ways, leave more questions than answers.

What animals were Epstein and Thiel potentially referring to, or watching together? Are “animals” code for something? Are they connected to this email, with the subject line “Moroccan girl butcher” and the text “Watch this young Moroccan beauty help skin a [calf] for Eid celebration?” Or, are they a reference to this email from Epstein to the Chief Legal Officer at Goldman Sachs, Kathy Ruemmler, in which he tells her that he is designing pigs with non-cloven hoofs to make kosher bacon?

We may one day know, or we may never know (or want to know). What we do know is that Thiel is featured at least 2,200 times in the Epstein correspondence released by the Justice Department, along with a sizable group of other tech elites. Some of these tech elites may have loosely operated in Epstein’s orbit, while others appeared to ingratiate themselves to get an invite onto his island.

Epstein and Thiel appear to have spoken frequently about ideology: in one exchange, the two men discuss Brexit, with Epstein sharing that he believes Brexit is “the beginning” of a “return to tribalism” and a “counter to globalization.” In that same email they further discuss how this return to tribalism will let them collapse the global economy so they can buy everything at a bargain price.

Thiel’s dietary restrictions are redacted in one of the files, for reasons I have yet to pinpoint.

One email from tech investor Ian Osborne lists a group of tech elite that Epstein might be interested in connecting with, including Peter (Thiel) – if Epstein wanted access to “currency” - and also Dave Morin of Path, Drew Houston of Dropbox, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who is referred to by Osborne as “the fatty at LinkedIn.”

A few years prior, Elon Musk expressed a desire to party at Epstein’s island, writing that “peaceful” was the opposite of what he was looking for, and that his then-wife Talulah would not be bothered by the ratio of females to males.

While Musk fired off a number of defensive posts on X seeming to deny any relationship with Epstein, his daughter Vivian Wilson confirms that she remembers going to St. Barth’s as a child during the timeline Elon is writing his emails.

In one message between Musk and Epstein, Epstein invites Musk to New York for the United Nations. Musk takes him literally and responds that he is far too busy running two companies to waste time with diplomats, to which Epstein responds “are you retarded?” and clarifies what he really means, that “there is no one under 25 there and all very cute.”

A 2015 email references a lunch with “Musk Thiel Zuckerberg” before Epstein goes to check out a private plane. Zuckerberg also had dinner with Epstein in 2015, seven years after Epstein was convicted by a Florida state court of procuring a child for sex and soliciting a prostitute.

The “Don’t Die” movement founder Bryan Johnson is also connected to Epstein in the emails, which I found interesting especially in the context of emails referencing Epstein’s longevity. Peter Attia, Epstein’s doctor and recently-fired CBS analyst, wrote: “we should find 60-90 minutes to go through the entire set of labs. Have you decided if you’re interested in living longer (solely for the ladies, of course)?” Yet another 2018 email to Epstein includes a “spreadsheet for the designer baby and human cloning company,” which is seeking funding for “the first live birth of a human designer baby.”

With more mortal issues pending, Epstein also requested prescriptions for STDs and erectile dysfunction from Attia—and he wasn’t the only one in need of STD medication. In one of the emails, we learn that Bill Gates allegedly needed to discreetly pass antibiotics to his then-wife Melinda because of an STD he may have procured from “Russian girls.”

While there may be more questions than answers arising from these disclosures–which still have only scratched the surface, given how much the DOJ is still holding onto–one thing is clear: it’s hard not to find it interesting that platforms proliferating sexualized images of children today are run by tech elite who previously spent time with a prolific pedophile.

Grok is sexualizing young girls, while xAI is releasing sexy AI companions that require its human data team to work with “sensitive, violent, sexual and/or disturbing content” that also “may be traumatizing, and/or cause you psychological stress.” Meta has created a digital environment where underage children engage in “sensual chats.” Prosecutors in Paris today just raided X’s offices for disseminating sexual deepfakes.

I’m not saying that Epstein fed these men those ideas, nor that any of these tech elite were engaged in pedophilia. But it seems important to note that Epstein–the central artery through which connections were made, money was transferred, and humans were trafficked–was hanging out with men who would later go on to create products sexualizing children. And while tech may live in the digital realm, it is coded and created by flesh and blood human beings, who are most likely shaped by the flesh and blood interactions they have in the real world.

Epstein and his associates implicated in trafficking women and children reveal the minds of deeply unwell people with a compulsion to dominate. Perhaps Thiel was closer to the “anti-Christ” he believes is coming than he thought.

What else we’re paying attention to this week:

The Booming Business of Turning Human Experts Into AI Trainers—Silicon Valley startup Micro1 is signing up everyone from police officers to nuclear scientists to teach LLMs.

Why I left: A personal account of power, silence, and leadership—after six years at Meta

WSJ: There is a whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard that is so sensitive that it is “said to be locked in a safe,” and the administration has spent months trying to figure out how inform Congress.

Where Michigan gubernatorial candidates stand on data centers—Data centers have emerged as a hot-button political issue in Michigan as the industry pushes proposed developments across the state