Essay calls the AI safety movement a Berkeley sex cult
Original title: AI Safety Is Mostly a Sex Cult in Berkeley, California
The piece traces Eliezer Yudkowsky and rationalist circles through MIRI, OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepMind funding.
A commentary argues that AI safety policy is dominated by a Berkeley rationalist community it calls a sex cult centered on Eliezer Yudkowsky. It cites his ties to MIRI, LessWrong, Effective Altruism events, and figures at OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind and Google. The essay treats those links as evidence of hidden influence rather than as a reported incident.
Unconfirmed: The sex-cult characterization and claims of decisive influence are the author's argument, not independently established facts.
- The author says Yudkowsky helped connect DeepMind founders with Peter Thiel.
- It says MIRI popularized the terms AI alignment and AI safety.
- Dario Amodei is described as identified with effective altruism in 2013.
- A cited interview names Yudkowsky as an influence on a man who tried to firebomb Sam Altman's house.
- Organizations
- MIRIFuture of Life Institute
From the original article
14 min read at verysane.ai
There has been a great effort over many years to distance AI Safety discussion from its origin and intellectual center, because its center is a sex cult started by a fan fiction author. Since those involved want to be taken seriously, they have to hide that. Everyone else working in AI Safety is, in effect, a smokescreen for this core group and their ideas.
By SLHamlet · verysane.ai
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.