-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Female researchers in artificial intelligence and machine learning are calling for greater transparency into what they allege is a culture of sexual coercion in Silicon Valley. On Sunday, computational neuroscience and machine learning expert Sonia Joseph took to X (formerly Twitter) to describe a "dark side" of startup culture — including "heavy LSD use" and sex parties held by mainly male tech and entrepreneurial elites that involve mock-violent role playing with female participants. "I have seen some troubling things around social circles of early OpenAI employees, their friends, and adjacent entrepreneurs," she said in a detailed tweet .
Related Eclipsed genius: Despite modest progress, sexism and racism persist in science Joseph , who said she is not currently under any non-disclosure agreements and has never worked for OpenAI, is a Princeton graduate and doctoral researcher at deep learning institute Mila Quebec. Her observations, she said, reflect what she witnessed in San Francisco's well-known community housing tech scene and through a network of women quietly navigating it. Joseph did not name any individual employees or executives at OpenAI in her posts, but said her knowledge of these incidents includes participants who were early employees at OpenAI and other companies.
"I don't think events like the consensual non-consensual (CNC) sex parties and heavy LSD use of some elite AI researchers have been good for women," Josep.
