Earlier this year, police revealed the existence of what they described as a violent cult called the Zizians after their leader, who goes by Ziz online and whose real name is Jack Lasota. It takes a lot of unpacking to understand the fringe philosophy with tech underpinnings espoused by Lasota, and J Oliver Conroy embarks on the task at the Guardian. How did "hyper-intelligent young altruists" who set out to protect the world from the dangers of artificial intelligence wind up on a path linked to six deaths? "The answers lie in a strange saga of idealism and disenchantment: a violent collision of internet culture and the real world—and perhaps a harbinger of more uncanny tidings to come."
Conroy's piece reveals that Lasota, a transgender female, faked her own drowning off the San Francisco coast in 2022 and went underground. At the time of the ruse, Lasota had been struggling to make ends meet and living on an expensive boat. But she had also been gaining followers with her blog posts:
- "Ziz's writing had polarized members of a niche but influential movement of AI theorists and tech bloggers who call themselves the 'rationalists.' The movement is less about specific ideas than it is about an ethos—applying rigorous, mathematically informed thinking to AI, philosophy, psychology and the big questions of our time."
The piece includes snippets of chatroom discussions on a range of subjects, including one from Lasota rejecting the hypothetical idea of spending money to save the life of a family member: "My family's stance on the cosmos and [mine] are fundamentally misaligned. They chose to give their souls to the gods of the easy path, including evolution, as they commit suicide. My parents did not choose to create me in some timeless contract, some considered decision, they rolled the dice because their programming told them to." More ominously, Oliver shows how the idea of violent behavior gradually gained traction within the group. (Read the full story.)
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