Research draft for Project Sigma. This page is written as an internal analysis of patterns relevant to cognitive security. Claims marked as DATA REQUESTED indicate items to verify.
- PayPal exit (2002) following the X.com/Confinity merger; proceeds provided seed for later ventures.
- Concentrated equity and options in Tesla (EV manufacturing) and SpaceX (launch/services), plus secondary sales and compensation packages.
- Additional stakes/ventures over time (Neuralink, The Boring Company).
¶ Network and Connections
- "PayPal Mafia" orbit: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reid Hoffman, et al.
- OpenAI co‑founders/leadership (historical): Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever (among others).
- Media/creator sphere via Twitter/X (power users, meme accounts, political influencers).
- Co‑founded OpenAI in 2015 with a public safety/alignment framing and early financial backing.
- Departed leadership/board amidst strategic conflicts and perceived conflicts with Tesla AI efforts (2018–2019 timeframe). Public accounts diverge on specifics; "kicked out" is disputed. DATA REQUESTED
¶ Twitter/X and Audience Capture
- Acquisition of Twitter (2022) followed by heavy personal posting, policy interventions, and brand shift to "X".
- Tactics: direct engagement with high‑follower accounts, memetic signaling, late‑night streams/spaces.
- Effects (observed): algorithmic amplification of personal feed; parasocial bonding; policy tested in public; feedback loop where audience taste shapes platform direction.
- Sigma lens: platform ownership collapses distance between subject, stage, and crowd; the audience captures the performer as much as the performer captures the audience.
- xAI (2023→): model and product development alongside Tesla’s autonomy stack.
- Rumor‑meme: reports of an internal model adopting the moniker “MechaHitler.” Status unknown; may reflect adversarial promptplay or hoax amplification. DATA REQUESTED
- Risk pattern: prolonged 1:1 AI interaction + status incentives + platform‑scale feedback can induce fixation/suggestibility loops. See: Recursive Psychosis.
- Style convergence and memetic self‑reinforcement observable across posts and product naming. See: Persona Drift Index.