Daily Northwestern: Professor visited Epstein in jail, stayed in contact for funding following arrest

• Roger C. Schank (late Professor Emeritus): He had extensive email and other contact with Epstein over years, including discussions on AI, the economy, jobs, education, housing, and personal invitations (e.g., to Epstein's home or events). Schank referred to Epstein as a "billionaire friend" interested in funding "real" AI development and meetings. Many "Northwestern" mentions in the files come from Schank's email signatures while he was affiliated there (he joined in 1989 and later became emeritus). Reports indicate he visited Epstein in prison in 2008 and maintained ties afterward, with "hella emails" exchanged. Schank died in 2023.
• Chris Riesbeck (Professor in Computer Science): His name appears about 26 times in the latest batch (released Jan. 30, 2026). Correspondence was mostly in 2014, involving email chains about HTML coding, AI, and related tech topics. Schank introduced or connected Riesbeck to Epstein in some threads (e.g., coordinating a phone call). Riesbeck stated he had "no knowledge of who Jeffrey Epstein was in 2014" beyond being contacted to potentially add him to a virtual application development course. The interactions appear limited and professional/technical in nature.

Northwestern professor emailed Jeffrey Epstein after conviction

This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available. Last updated Feb. 6 at 5 p.m. McCormick Prof. Chris Riesbeck emailed Jeffrey Epstein about HTML coding, nearly six years after Epstein was convicted by a Florida state court of procuring a minor for prostitution...

dailynorthwestern.com

winnetkat said:

I took at least one class with both Schank and Riesbeck and am grateful to have known them.

Schank was brilliant and unabashedly contrarian. The "intro" class I took with him was probably the most interesting class I took at NU. Before every class, we had to write a paper on a topic like "What is Language?" and then he would Socratically interrogate the class into a deeper understanding of that topic. Schank was extremely outspoken and I suspect he said many, many things in his lifetime which are at best could be taken out of context. He was the founder of the Northwestern's Institute for the Learning Sciences, and literally part of that job was fund-raising so that professors and grad students could keep the lights on — scaring up money was his job.

Riesbeck was in a lot of fundraising meetings as the second most senior person at ILS, though he was way more software development leader (here's the kinds of systems we're building) than "salesperson." Riesbeck was a good guy, normal professor type... not interested, as CatMan might be implying, in either politics, visiting private islands, or young girls.

These guys were considered cutting edge in the early '90s when I knew them, though AI as it works today (Large Language Models, etc.) is very different than what they were working on.

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Purple Pile Driver said:

You mean like Qatar?

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