My main concern is that, in a targeted persuasion-of-the-powerful campaign, you want folks who are very good at persuading the powerful. By talent, this seems largely to draw from the “intellectually honest fringe” (where I and my friends live), who (as I understand it) haven’t been successful in “targeted persuasion of fancy, respectable people.” I really like the idea, though! I think this might be one of the most under-resourced causes in AI safety, and I plan to donate to help with the bridge funding. But—what should reassure me about my worries, that y’all are odd and not-well-connected, therefore being ill-suited to persuade all these important people?
You’re concerned whether “odd and not-well-connected” folks can execute “targeted persuasion of fancy, respectable people.” That is a very fair concern.
Here is what I can tell you publicly. (Confidential briefing with specifics available under confidentiality agreement. I will send you a private message meanwhile)
I was raised quite wealthy in Italy, competed as an Italian national golf champion (2nd place), and as a young man spent years in Italy’s Emerald Coast (20 years of summers) and Miami Beach (7 years) social circles—I grew up with the very wealthy. I understand how to navigate elite spaces because I was raised in them. Combined with 15 years building technical credibility, this enables exactly the targeted persuasion you’re questioning.
The empirical proof: Our October 2025 US Persuasion Tour delivered 85+ meetings (projected 15-20): 23 AI lab policy officials at OpenAI/Anthropic/DeepMind, 8 national security contacts, 4 intelligence community officials. Direct pathways to 2 of 10 primary target influencers.
15-year track record:
Trustless Computing Association: 9 years building deep CIA (MACH37 accelerator incubation), NSA (former officials now advisors), DoD, State Department relationships
Free and Safe in Cyberspace: 11 conferences, 3 continents, 130+ speakers including First US Cyber Coordinator, UN Special Rapporteur, European Data Protection Supervisor, Jaan Tallinn (our later funder). All aggregated around my vision for a Trustless Computing Certification Body.
Strategic assets:Mar-a-Lago area connections through 6 years Miami residence + personal relationships in Palm Beach; Vatican network (3 years with the secretary fo the main Vartican AI organization, organizing April-June Rome meetings); AI lab access (direct relation with the global head of policy at one of the top 3 lab, 25+ frontier lab officials).
Our Strategic Memo (356 pages) contains 170+ pages of psychological profiling—667+ sources per target. With $200-400K, we hire 2 operators to deploy this at scale.
We only need 2 key influencers (Hassabis/Amodei) to then use our memo to convince the others.
Constraint isn’t access—it’s operational capacity. We’ve proven we open doors; need people to execute.
My main concern is that, in a targeted persuasion-of-the-powerful campaign, you want folks who are very good at persuading the powerful. By talent, this seems largely to draw from the “intellectually honest fringe” (where I and my friends live), who (as I understand it) haven’t been successful in “targeted persuasion of fancy, respectable people.” I really like the idea, though! I think this might be one of the most under-resourced causes in AI safety, and I plan to donate to help with the bridge funding. But—what should reassure me about my worries, that y’all are odd and not-well-connected, therefore being ill-suited to persuade all these important people?
Malcolm,
You’re concerned whether “odd and not-well-connected” folks can execute “targeted persuasion of fancy, respectable people.” That is a very fair concern.
Here is what I can tell you publicly. (Confidential briefing with specifics available under confidentiality agreement. I will send you a private message meanwhile)
I was raised quite wealthy in Italy, competed as an Italian national golf champion (2nd place), and as a young man spent years in Italy’s Emerald Coast (20 years of summers) and Miami Beach (7 years) social circles—I grew up with the very wealthy. I understand how to navigate elite spaces because I was raised in them. Combined with 15 years building technical credibility, this enables exactly the targeted persuasion you’re questioning.
The empirical proof: Our October 2025 US Persuasion Tour delivered 85+ meetings (projected 15-20): 23 AI lab policy officials at OpenAI/Anthropic/DeepMind, 8 national security contacts, 4 intelligence community officials. Direct pathways to 2 of 10 primary target influencers.
15-year track record:
Trustless Computing Association: 9 years building deep CIA (MACH37 accelerator incubation), NSA (former officials now advisors), DoD, State Department relationships
Free and Safe in Cyberspace: 11 conferences, 3 continents, 130+ speakers including First US Cyber Coordinator, UN Special Rapporteur, European Data Protection Supervisor, Jaan Tallinn (our later funder). All aggregated around my vision for a Trustless Computing Certification Body.
Coalition: 40+ advisors from UN/NSA/WEF/Yale/Princeton, 10 NGO partners, 356-page Strategic Memo
Strategic assets: Mar-a-Lago area connections through 6 years Miami residence + personal relationships in Palm Beach; Vatican network (3 years with the secretary fo the main Vartican AI organization, organizing April-June Rome meetings); AI lab access (direct relation with the global head of policy at one of the top 3 lab, 25+ frontier lab officials).
Our Strategic Memo (356 pages) contains 170+ pages of psychological profiling—667+ sources per target. With $200-400K, we hire 2 operators to deploy this at scale.
We only need 2 key influencers (Hassabis/Amodei) to then use our memo to convince the others.
Constraint isn’t access—it’s operational capacity. We’ve proven we open doors; need people to execute.
Best, Rufo