An internet leak named University president Jonathan Levin ’94 as an affiliate of ‘Dialog,’ an invitation-only network of leaders in tech, politics and business founded by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel ’89 J.D. ’92.
Since Thiel founded Dialog in 2006, the society has hosted annual retreats for its members. The group’s events have allegedly included sessions titled “Navigating WWIII” and “Money (Does?) Buy Happiness,” as reported by WIRED.
Axios reported last year that the organization bought real estate outside Washington, D.C. to develop a headquarters.
Swiss anarchist and hacktivist maia arson crimew posted a list of 113 Dialog affiliates on Monday — including Levin, U.S. Senator Cory Booker ’91 M.A. ’92, Graduate School of Business professor Susan Athey Ph.D. ’95 and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale ’04. WIRED reported that it has “independently verified” the contents of the list.
An invitation to Dialog 2014, which appeared in the Epstein files released earlier this year, listed Levin as a participant in their 2013 retreat. The invite also listed Athey, Lonsdale and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman ’90 as attendees.
The Daily has reached out to Levin and the University for comment.
crimew found the directory embedded in the Dialog website’s code on Monday morning. The hacker previously drew attention for exposing the U.S. government’s No-Fly-List on a misconfigured Amazon Web Services (AWS) server. She was indicted on criminal charges in the United States in 2021.
In a subsequent Bluesky post, crimew wrote that it was unclear whether the list comprised current members or simply speakers and attendees at the network’s events.
“i am no secret society expert but i dont think going to the secret society convention is much less bad than being a member of the secret society,” crimew wrote on Bluesky.
Names on the list span political parties and spheres of influence. Other Stanford affiliates who appear include former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro ’96, The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson ’97, philosopher and author Sam Harris ’00 and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan ’96 M.B.A. ’05.
In addition to Levin, the list named higher education leaders including Mitch Daniels, former president of Purdue University and Governor of Indiana, and Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard University.
Billionaire Elon Musk, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, journalist Ezra Klein and songwriter Benj Pasek also appeared on the list.
Thiel co-founded Palantir with Lonsdale, Alex Karp J.D. ’92, Stephen Cohen ’05 and Nathan Gettings in 2003. The software company builds data collection and analytics platforms used by the federal government, defense companies and intelligence agencies.
Palantir has faced criticism in recent years for its role in the tracking and deportation of undocumented immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Last year, the company entered a lucrative defense contract with the U.S. Army, which recently expanded to include the company’s Maven artificial intelligence system.
Throughout the 2000s, Thiel met with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who offered Thiel financial advice and frequently invited him to his island. The two men exchanged emails until early 2019. Documents in the Epstein files released earlier this year documented an apparently close relationship between them. In one message, Epstein referred to Thiel as a “great friend.”
In a February 2016 email to Japanese venture capitalist and entrepreneur Joi Ito, Epstein wrote, “peter thiel LOVED the secret socieity [sic] idea. . he has done alot [sic] of work on the concept.”
Later that evening, Epstein received a reply stating “:-) let’s do it.”