[notadonut]

Thank you.

Thiel was an early backer of SI and attendee of the Singularity Summits that ran from 2006-2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_Summit

Soon after that, awareness of AI and superintelligence went mainstream, and we got FHI, FLI, etc.

I don't know if Thiel backs MIRI as he did SI. Arguably, he doesn't need to. He made his money on DeepMind and helped trigger a larger movement, and other institutions with a lot more resources, like Alphabet and MSFT, carry forward the torch.

[celdon25]

Thiel wasn't an attendee, he was one of the people running the conference

[notadonut]

He was attendee and sponsor and running the conference.