EFTA Document EFTA01794097

From: on behalf of Ben Goertzel Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 4:15 PM To: Jeffrey Epstein Subject: Re: video chat? Hi, Great! It will be good to chat; it's been a while ;) If you're on the US East Coast, then given the time zone difference, some convenient times would be: 7PM US Eastern time (= 8AM Hong Kong time) or 10AM US Eastern time (=11PM Hong Kong time).... I can do those times basically any day, just let me know what day/time works for you.... (Or feel free to posit some other time, those are just suggestions...) Skype, or on Google Hangouts... or I can call a US number easily, of course... Yours, Ben On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 6:18 PM, Jeffrey Epstein <[email protected]> wr=te: > great idea > On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 5:35 AM, Ben Goertzel wrote: » Hi, » One more small thing.. >> » Joscha mentioned he talked to you via video-chat, by the way.... » We've never tried that, but now that I'm in Hong Kong most of the » time, it might be a good idea, since a F2F meeting may be difficult » to coordinate... » Let me know if you have time -- certainly it's "higher bandwidth" in » some ways than email. » Yours » Ben >> >> » On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 2:12 PM, Ben Goertzel >» Hi Jeffrey, »> wrote: EFTA_R1_00127960 EFTA01794097 >» [Sorry for the semi-long email but there's lots to cover; I know >» you're busy and your time is appreciated... ;) J »> >» Firstly -- Wow, it seems your publicity folks have been quite >» impactful lately! Since your team has issued a number of press >» releases mentioning me lately, I keep getting emails from people >» congratulating me on my new AGI funding windfall from the Jeffrey >» Epstein IV Foundation. (Though of course, I have to disappoint them >» by telling them that, while you've been consistently and >» wonderfully helpful to my work over the years, there has been no >» big-time Epstein/OpenCog AGI funding event... yet ...) » > >» Anyway -- on to immediate practical matters -- the time of year has >» come for me to email you and inquire about the possibility of >» ongoing research funding... »> >» You may recall that my Hong Kong government research grant requires >» private donations amounting to 10% of the $$, and then the >» government will put up 90%. »> >» Last year you donated $20K toward this grant, which was very much >» appreciated. » > >» This year I have gotten approval for an increase in the Hong Kong >» government funding (technically: a separate grant running 2014-2015, >» overlapping with the current grant which runs 2013-2014). With the >» increased funding, next year we will have 10 programmers working on >» OpenCog here in Hong Kong, which will be quite exciting. »> » > The 10% payment for the two grants will be $45K in total, due by >» the end of 2013. If you could help with this, as you did last >» year, that would be fantastic. (Elsewise, to be quite frank, I >» have no ready way to come up with that amount of money except to >» liquidate my minimal pension fund from my university days ;p ) »> >» The new grant (2014-2015) is specifically for natural language >» dialogue, whereas the previous one (2013.2014) was aimed at robotics, >» and the earlier one (2012-2013) was aimed at game characters. As you » > see, what they like to fund is something that sounds "applied", >» rather than core AGI research. However, the bulk of the $$ has >» always actually been spent on core AGI research. [The funding >» agency is ultimately fine with whatever you do, so long as it's in >» the vicinity of the proposal and you publish some papers] »> >» This brief wiki page » > >» http://wiki.opencog.org/w/OpenCog_HK_2014_High_Level_Goals »> >» summarizes what we've done in the last year (2013 so far), and what >» is planned for this fall and the next year. I'm happy to elaborate more >» details for you if you wish. It's exciting stuff... with this >» increased grant funding, we should be able to finally make an 2 EFTA_R1_00127961 EFTA01794098 >» honest effort at implementing a non-trivial subset of OpenCog... >» (I can also send you the full grant proposals if you wish, though >» they are somewhat a mix of science-ese and proposal-ese as is usual >» in such cases...) »> >» Ah, and btw -- my in-depth book on how to build an AGI >» ("Engineering General Intelligence") is being published early next >» year, in two volumes, FINALLY ... >> > » > >» http://www.amazon.com/Engineering-General-Intelligence-Part-Cogniti >» ve/=p/9462390266/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ierUTF8&qid=1384664281&sr=1-3&k >» e=words=goertzel+engineering+general+intelligence » > »> » > http://www.amazon.com/Engineering-General-Intelligence-Part-Archite >» ctu=e/dp/9462390290/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384664311&sr=1- >» 4=keywords=goertzel+engineering+general+intelligence »> >» I will send you copies when they are available... ;) » > >» Finally -- while your help with the next 10% payment will be VERY >» much appreciated, it remains the case that our progress toward AGI >» would be accelerated dramatically with additional funding from a >» visionary such as yourself. The HK government money is very >» welcome yet has some strings attached -- basically you can only use >» it to hire "postdoc" / "research associate" type people, not >» experienced professionals. I can't use the money to pay myself, >» nor to pay someone with a decade or two of professional Al >» programming experience, nor experienced Al researchers for that matter. » > >» If you were able to provide a higher level of help, this could of >» course dramatically accelerate our progress toward AGI. »> >» In this spirit, I have been thinking of putting together a proposal >» for a cross-university collaboration on AGI, including adding a few >» senior staff to my own team at Hong Kong Poly U, some funds for >» Joscha and a couple assistants to work on the >» motivation/action-selection aspects, and for Itamar to hire some assistants to work on perception >» and action at UTK. If you would be interested to consider such a >» proposal, in the vicinity of say US$750K/year for 3 years (with >» clearly defined interim milestones along the way), let me know. >» This level of course is not "AGI Brooklyn Project" scale, but it >» would still provide a very major boost to our AGI efforts. » > >» Next, a slightly more personal update.... Right now I am spending >» half my time on OpenCog and half on Aidyia, our Al-based proto-hedge fund. >» The hedge fund project is going OK; we've been doing lots of >» research and software development on machine learning applied to financial >» markets, and expect to start trading perhaps 02 of next year. I have >» some equity in Aidyia, so if it succeeds, I'll get a bunch of money >» at some point in N years. However, I am very bored with financial 3 EFTA_R1_00127962 EFTA01794099 >» market analysis and eager to spend more of my time on AGI, >» especially with this additional OpenCog grant money. During 2014 I >» plan to segue into spending more and more time on OpenCog and the >» quest for AGI, which is what I really love, while continuing to >» help Aidyia with high-level Al advisement... >> > >» Assuming the fund project goes OK and we launch the fund in >» mid-2014 as expected, I will contact you about possible interest in >» putting AUM into the fund. »> >» A 48 minute documentary was made about my and Hugo de Garis's >» AI/robotics work in Xiamen in 2009, by the way. It's not terribly >» meaty science-wise, but, toward the end are some *great* >» conversations with a robot chat system that Ruiting (now my wife) and I built.... >» See http://singularityorbust.com if you have an hour to spare watching >» it. Beware it contains a lot of me mumbling about philosophy -- but >» still, although it's somehat avant-garde in style, it did win a >» Best Documentary award at a film festival... »> >» Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of this long email, >» and for your ongoing, very much valued assistance! »> >» By the way, when do you plan to visit Hong Kong? ;) » > >» Yours, >» Ben »> >» P.S. >» Ah -- also -- I will be on the US East Coast briefly over the >» holidays to visit my family... I'm guessing you're traveling during >» the holida=s too, but if you happen to have a free couple hours on >» Dec 30 for example, I could journey from Delaware (where my mom >» lives) up to New York or down to Florida to confer with you... >> > >» Or of course, I am happy to talk on the phone at any time! ... the >» tim= zones are a bit tricky, but for you I'll get up in the middle >» of the night or whatever... »> » > -- >» Ben Goertzel, PhD >» http://goertzel.org »> >» "My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche » -- » Ben Goertzel, PhD » http://goertzel.org » "My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche 4 EFTA_R1_00127963 EFTA01794100 > -- > > The information contained in this communication is confidential, may > be attorney-client privileged, may constitute inside information, and > is intended only for the use of the addressee. It is the property of > Jeffrey Epstein Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this > communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be > unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please > notify us immediately by return e-mail or by e-mail to > [email protected], and destroy this communication and all copies > thereof, including all attachments. copyright -all rights reserved Ben Goertzel, PhD http://goertzel.org "My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche <?xml version=.0" encoding=TF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/Propertylist-1.0.dtd") <plist version=.0"> <dict> <key>date-last-viewed</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>date-received</key> <integer>1384877714</integer> <key>flags</key> <integer>8590195717</integer> <key>gmail-label-ids</key> <array> <integer>22</integer> <integer>2</integer> </array> <key>remote-id</key> <string>363445</string> </dict> </plist> 5 EFTA_R1_00127964 EFTA01794101