Hong Kong, Feb 16 (efe).- American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein allocated at least $113,000 to Ben Goertzel, one of the pioneers in the field of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This contribution allowed the researcher to meet the private patronage requirements set by Hong Kong authorities to obtain public grants.
According to an investigation published this Monday exclusively by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP), based on nearly 800 pages of documents declassified by the US Department of Justice, this relationship lasted for nearly two decades.
The link facilitated Goertzel's access to government funds totaling 8.9 million Hong Kong dollars (about 1.13 million US dollars) between 2010 and 2016. The archives reveal that Epstein channeled his support through the non-profit organization Humanity+, which Goertzel currently presides over, to finance the OpenCog project, an open-source software framework that he himself promoted.
The scientist and current CEO of SingularityNET, who coined the term 'Artificial General Intelligence' and was CTO of Hanson Robotics - where he participated in the development of the humanoid robot Sophia - used these resources to meet the corporate sponsorship requirement imposed by the Hong Kong grant system.
Specifically, the company Novamente, owned by the mathematician and programmer, acted as the formal sponsor for three projects at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Intercepted emails show recurring funding requests from the researcher, which ranged from $10,000 to $60,000 annually.
One of them, dated in January 2010 - just six months after Epstein was released from prison for a conviction related to sexual offenses with a minor - requested $18,000.
In subsequent communications, dated in 2015, Goertzel downplayed the accusations against Epstein by suggesting that his controversial activities might have been 'an incident between reasonably mature people who mutually consented at that time'.
Following the release of these documents, Goertzel, who currently resides in the United States but maintains his permanent residence in the semi-autonomous city, expressed his 'deep regret' for having accepted the money.
He argued that at that time it was 'extremely difficult' to obtain funding for artificial intelligence projects and that his personal encounters never exceeded eight hours in twenty years, always limited to scientific discussions.
He denied any knowledge of the magnate's criminal activities.
In turn, the Hong Kong Government's Innovation and Technology Commission limited itself to recalling that its grant evaluation processes are 'rigorous and periodic'.
The SCMP investigation underscores that, although there is no evidence that Goertzel was aware of Epstein's crimes, the relationship illustrates how the latter managed to infiltrate elite academic and scientific circles even after his first conviction.
Photo EFE
