How the Peter Thiel-Linked Dialog Club Secretly Ranks Its Members
Key takeaways
- The data includes home addresses, private phone numbers and email accounts, dates of birth, photos, and emergency contacts, as well as food allergies and the political leanings volunteered by some members.
- According to a Dialog document shared by a past participant, it has “over 1,000 paying members,” and more than 2,500 people have attended its annual retreats.
- The document, which describes Dialog as an “invite-only community,” distinguishes between two products: membership and retreats.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGESComment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Dialog, the private network cofounded by Peter Thiel, grades its event attendees on a hidden scale, ranking them by wealth and fame, tracking their relationships, and using algorithms to help decide who they should meet, who they should sit with, and who no longer belongs, WIRED has learned.
The records are part of a trove of internal data received by WIRED from a confidential source, containing the personal information of nearly 200 prominent people scheduled to attend the group's annual retreat this summer. The data includes home addresses, private phone numbers and email accounts, dates of birth, photos, and emergency contacts, as well as food allergies and the political leanings volunteered by some members.
The records are distinct from a list of people affiliated with Dialog that was left exposed on the organization’s website and has been circulating online since earlier this week—a looser directory that appears to include nonmembers, such as Maryland governor Wes Moore, a former event speaker, and other outside guests who passed through Dialog’s orbit, in some cases years ago.