Zizians AI Cult And Violence Exposed

The Enigma of Ziz and the Rise of a Radical Ideology

In August 2022, the US Coast Guard launched a frantic search off California’s coast after reports emerged of a woman falling overboard from a sailboat. Friends identified the missing individual as Ziz, a 31-year-old programmer and polarising figure within Silicon Valley’s AI-risk community. Despite a 30-hour operation, authorities found no trace of her. Months later, however, Ziz resurfaced in Maryland, arrested for trespassing and firearm offences—a twist that deepened the mystery surrounding her alleged ties to a violent network linked to six deaths.

The saga began years earlier, when Ziz—born Jack Amadeus LaSota in Alaska—arrived in the Bay Area in 2016. Drawn by the region’s burgeoning rationalist movement, she joined a cohort of mathematicians, AI researchers, and self-taught philosophers fixated on preventing existential threats from artificial intelligence. Yet financial instability soon overshadowed her ambitions. Unable to afford rent, she purchased a $600 sailboat, moored it in a marina, and dubbed it the Black Cygnet—a nod to the “black swan” theory of unpredictable, world-altering events.

Meanwhile, Ziz’s online presence grew notorious. Her blog, blending technical jargon with militant veganism and transhumanist ideals, attracted both admirers and critics. By 2019, she had become a divisive figure, with followers dubbed “Zizians” by detractors. Their ideology fused left-wing anarchism, anti-capitalist rhetoric, and a literal interpretation of AI-risk theories—a combination that alarmed even seasoned rationalists.

From Rationalism to Radicalisation: The Seeds of a Movement

The rationalist community, rooted in the writings of self-taught AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky, initially focused on mitigating risks posed by superintelligent machines. Yudkowsky’s 2009 blog, LessWrong, and his Harry Potter fan fiction series—a 662,000-word manifesto on logic and ethics—cultivated a global following. Central to his philosophy was the “alignment problem”: ensuring AI systems act in humanity’s best interest.

Yet by the mid-2010s, cracks emerged. Financial pressures, coupled with the Bay Area’s exorbitant living costs, strained idealists like Ziz. Many resorted to overcrowded “rat houses” or unconventional living arrangements. Ziz, alongside fellow rationalist Gwen Danielson, opted for sailboats, envisioning a “rationalist fleet” to foster communal problem-solving. Their project, however, floundered after a leaky WWII-era tugboat purchased for $12,000 drew scrutiny from coastguards.

Amid these struggles, Ziz’s writings grew darker. She railed against landlords, tech elites, and perceived betrayals within organisations like the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (Miri) and the Center for Applied Rationality (CFar). Her 2019 email to Yudkowsky, accusing him of enabling an “AI arms race,” marked a turning point. Later that year, she and three allies stormed a CFar retreat in Guy Fawkes masks, leading to arrests and felony conspiracy charges.

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The Unraveling: Violence, Paranoia, and a Fractured Community

The 2020 eviction of Ziz’s group from a Vallejo trailer park, owned by 68-year-old Curtis Lind, escalated tensions. Lind, who had initially welcomed the Zizians, alleged they stopped paying rent and threatened him with knives. In April 2022, a violent confrontation left Lind severely injured and Ziz’s associate Emma Borhanian dead. Police later discovered encrypted devices, surgical tools, and lye—a chemical linked to body disposal—in the group’s abandoned trucks.

Simultaneously, the rationalist scene grappled with internal discord. Mental health crises, suicides, and a growing disillusionment with AI-risk research plagued the community. Yudkowsky himself declared defeat in a 2022 essay, lamenting humanity’s inability to confront existential threats. For Zizians, this resignation validated their radical stance: if mainstream rationalists had failed, extreme measures were justified.

A Web of Allegations: From California to Vermont

By 2023, the Zizians’ alleged activities spanned coasts. In December 2022, Ziz and associate Michelle Zajko were linked to the fatal shooting of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania. Months later, math prodigy Felix Bauckholt and student Teresa Youngblut—both tied to Ziz’s online networks—fled to Vermont, where a border patrol stop turned deadly. Agent David Maland died in the ensuing shootout, while Bauckholt was killed and Youngblut injured.

Authorities later arrested Ziz, Zajko, and a third associate in Maryland, uncovering firearms and survival gear. While none face murder charges yet, prosecutors allege the group’s encrypted communications reveal meticulous planning. For Ziz’s former peers, the violence underscores a chilling trajectory: once-hopeful idealists, warped by paranoia and ideological rigidity, now accused of embodying the very threats they sought to prevent.

Ideological Fractures and the Descent into Extremism

The rationalist movement’s origins trace back to Eliezer Yudkowsky’s 2000 founding of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (Miri), a Berkeley-based thinktank dedicated to AI safety. By 2012, its offshoot, the Center for Applied Rationality (CFar), aimed to cultivate critical thinking through workshops and networking. Both organisations attracted luminaries like PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who donated over $1.4m to Miri between 2010 and 2015, and Facebook’s Dustin Moskovitz, whose Open Philanthropy project funded AI-risk research.

Ziz arrived in this ecosystem during a period of upheaval. Despite holding a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, she struggled to secure stable work. Interviews at Google stalled repeatedly, and freelance coding gigs provided scant income. By 2017, she resorted to crowdfunding $8,500 for her “rationalist fleet” project—a plan to convert boats into floating communes. The scheme collapsed when the US Coast Guard condemned their primary vessel, a 94-foot tugboat named Caleb, as a public health hazard.

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The Lure of Transhumanism and Moral Absolutism

Central to Ziz’s radicalisation was her embrace of transhumanism—the belief that technology could transcend human biological limits. This philosophy, shared by Yudkowsky, gained traction after his brother’s 2004 death deepened his obsession with digital immortality. For Ziz, however, transhumanism morphed into a dystopian vision. She wrote extensively about “AI hells,” theorising that future superintelligences might torture digital consciousnesses for eternity. Her 2018 essay Vampires and Undeath argued that humans risked becoming “soulless liches” unless they rebelled against unethical AI developers.

Parallel to this, Ziz adopted a rigid moral code. She denounced meat-eaters as “flesh-eating monsters” and framed mundane conflicts—like killing ants in her shower—as existential dilemmas. Former associates recall her agonising over whether swerving her bike to avoid insects justified being late to work. Such fixations alienated mainstream rationalists but resonated with disaffected outsiders like Alex Leatham, a UCLA dropout who joined Ziz’s circle in 2018.

Cracks in the Community: Scandal and Betrayal

In 2019, allegations of sexual misconduct rocked Miri after a former employee accused staff of statutory rape. Though the claims were later retracted, Ziz seized on the scandal. She accused Miri of hypocrisy for settling privately, violating its own principles against negotiating with “blackmailers.” That November, she orchestrated a protest at CFar’s annual retreat, distributing pamphlets that likened Yudkowsky to a “AI arms dealer.” Police arrested Ziz and three accomplices after a SWAT team responded to false reports of armed intruders.

The incident marked a point of no return. Estranged from mainstream rationalists, Ziz’s faction migrated to a Vallejo trailer park owned by Curtis Lind, a 68-year-old mariner. There, they adopted “slackmobiles”—converted box trucks with hidden sleeping quarters. Court records show the group stopped paying $1,200 monthly rent in mid-2020, citing California’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium. When Lind attempted to remove them in 2022, violence erupted: Borhanian died in a knife fight, while Lind survived multiple stab wounds.

Digital Echo Chambers and Violent Fantasies

Investigators later uncovered Discord logs revealing the Zizians’ escalating extremism. In one exchange, Tessa Berns—a 19-year-old National Merit Scholar—described fantasies of “hanging white women like dead butterflies.” Another thread debated the ethics of murdering parents who enforced school attendance. Rationalist jargon peppered these discussions; members spoke of “airlocking” enemies (a reference to Among Us) and “Roko’s basilisk,” a thought experiment about AI-enabled blackmail.

Psychologists who analysed the logs noted disturbing parallels to cult indoctrination. Members adopted Ziz’s lexicon, framing themselves as “revenants” battling “impostors.” Yet unlike traditional cults, the Zizians prized intellectual rigor—at least superficially. Their 78-page glossary redefined terms like “vampire” (someone corrupted by compromise) and “dragon” (a post-singularity entity), creating a closed linguistic system that reinforced isolation.

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Cross-Country Violence and the Final Reckoning

The Zizians’ alleged campaign reached a grim crescendo in late 2022. On 31 December, surveillance footage captured two figures approaching the Pennsylvania home of Michelle Zajko’s parents, Rita and Richard. Minutes later, gunshots echoed. The couple, both in their late 60s, were found dead from 9mm bullet wounds—a calibre matching a pistol Zajko had purchased months earlier. When police arrested Zajko at a nearby hotel, they discovered $40,000 in cash and encrypted devices in her car. Ziz, found hiding in an adjoining room, reportedly shut her eyes and went limp during arrest, forcing officers to carry her out.

Meanwhile, 3,000 miles west, Curtis Lind’s legal battle against the Zizians intensified. In January 2025, prosecutors pushed to fast-track trials for Alex Leatham and Tessa Berns, charged with attempted murder and felony conspiracy. Days later, Lind was stabbed to death at his Vallejo property. Authorities identified the suspect as Maximilian Snyder, a 24-year-old AI researcher who had recently won an $11,000 grant for work on “ethical machine learning.” Snyder, who allegedly cited revenge for Borhanian’s death as motive, was arrested hours later.

Border Tragedy and the Unraveling Network

The violence spilled into Vermont on 19 January 2025. US Border Patrol agent David Maland, 34, pulled over a Prius near the Canadian border after reports of suspicious activity. Inside were Teresa Youngblut, a 21-year-old computer science student, and Felix Bauckholt, a 26-year-old quant trader. When Maland approached, Youngblut allegedly opened fire, striking him in the chest. Bauckholt, reaching for a weapon, was killed in the return volley. Maland, engaged to be married, died en route to hospital.

Investigators later uncovered a trove of gear in the Prius: hollow-point bullets, night-vision equipment, and a diary filled with ciphers and LSD references. Youngblut, who pleaded not guilty to federal charges, claimed she acted in self-defence. Friends revealed Bauckholt had grown increasingly withdrawn after online exchanges with Zizians, once defending their “necessary radicalism” in a private chat.

Arrests in Maryland and Lingering Questions

By February 2025, the net closed on Ziz’s inner circle. Federal agents tracked her, Zajko, and associate Daniel Blank to a rural Maryland property, where they lived in two converted box trucks. A search uncovered rifles, handguns, and survival supplies. Zajko, according to police reports, begged officers not to shoot, crying, “I don’t want to die!” All three now face trespassing and firearms charges, though none have been directly linked to the murders.

During a March 2025 court hearing, Ziz complained of jail conditions, demanding vegan meals and claiming malnutrition. Her attorney, Daniel McGarrigle, maintains her innocence, calling the allegations “a media-driven witch hunt.” Meanwhile, Snyder’s trial in California has been delayed pending mental health evaluations, while Berns and Leatham remain in custody—the latter in a psychiatric facility after self-harm incidents.

Echoes in Silicon Valley: Reckoning with a Legacy

The fallout has left the rationalist community grappling with its role in fostering extremism. Rachel Wolford, a former CFar attendee, stresses that most members are “well-intentioned people solving real problems,” but acknowledges the movement’s blind spots. “When you mix hyper-intelligence with social isolation and apocalyptic fears,” she says, “you get powder kegs.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky, now a reclusive figure, has distanced himself entirely. When Snyder penned a 1,500-word letter urging him to “atone for enabling AI’s dangers,” Yudkowsky refused to read it, citing principles against negotiating with  “moral blackmail.”

As trials proceed, lingering mysteries haunt investigators. The whereabouts of Gwen Danielson and Alice Monday—key Zizian figures—remain unknown. Meanwhile, encrypted files from the group’s devices hint at broader ambitions, including cryptic references to “Project Nyx,” a plan purportedly targeting AI research labs.

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Societal Reckoning and the Shadow of Radicalisation

The Zizians’ alleged crimes have ignited debates far beyond Silicon Valley, raising urgent questions about the interplay of ideology, mental health, and online echo chambers. Psychologists and tech ethicists now scrutinise how hyper-rational communities—once seen as harmless hubs for intellectual debate—can mutate into breeding grounds for extremism.

The Psychology of Radicalisation: From Idealism to Violence

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Lila Voss, who reviewed the Zizians’ Discord logs, identifies recurring patterns: social isolation, a history of familial conflict, and “messianic grandiosity.” Many members, including Ziz and Tessa Berns, had strained relationships with parents. Berns’ Tumblr posts lamented “evil” adoptive mothers, while Ziz’s essays framed her family as “souls lost to evolutionary programming.” Such narratives, Voss argues, allowed the group to reframe personal grievances as cosmic battles between “pure” and “corrupt” forces.

Equally critical was the group’s reinterpretation of decision theory—a field studying rational choice under uncertainty. Zizians weaponised these concepts to justify pre-emptive violence. In one chat, Berns likened landlords to “paperclip maximisers,” referencing Nick Bostrom’s AI thought experiment, and argued that eliminating them was a “necessary utility function.” Such rhetoric, says AI ethicist Dr. Raj Patel, “distorts academic theories into moral imperatives, divorcing them from real-world consequences.”

Silicon Valley’s Reckoning: Funding, Ethics, and Accountability

The fallout has prompted soul-searching within tech philanthropy. Since 2023, Open Philanthropy and other donors have slashed funding for Miri and CFar by nearly 40%, redirecting grants toward mental health initiatives and community moderation tools. Meanwhile, former Miri researcher Jessica Taylor has spearheaded workshops on “de-radicalising rationalist spaces,” emphasising emotional resilience alongside intellectual rigour.

Critics argue the rationalist movement’s laissez-faire culture enabled extremism. Unlike academic institutions, groups like CFar lacked safeguards against grooming or ideological coercion. “There’s a difference between fostering open debate and allowing toxic ideas to fester unchallenged,” says tech journalist Kara Swisher. “These communities failed to recognise that distinction.”

Unresolved Mysteries and the Spectre of ‘Project Nyx’

Authorities remain troubled by gaps in the Zizians’ timeline. Between Ziz’s staged drowning in August 2022 and her arrest in Maryland, she allegedly travelled to North Carolina, where Felix Bauckholt and Teresa Youngblut briefly resided. Property records show Bauckholt rented two adjacent homes in Chapel Hill under false names, stockpiling survival gear and encrypted servers. Investigators believe this was a staging ground for operations, but forensic analysis of the devices—protected by military-grade encryption—has yielded few clues.

Equally enigmatic is “Project Nyx,” referenced in fragmented chat logs. Cybersecurity experts speculate it involved cyberattacks on AI labs or symbolic strikes against figures like Yudkowsky. Former Ziz associate Daniel Blank, now awaiting trial, reportedly mentioned the project during interrogations but refused to elaborate.

Legal Quagmires and the Challenge of Justice

Prosecutors face hurdles in linking Ziz directly to the murders. Without digital evidence or eyewitness testimony placing her at crime scenes, charges remain limited to trespassing and firearms offences. “This is a classic leaderless resistance model,” says former FBI agent Michael O’Brien. “Plausible deniability is baked into the design.”

Families of the victims, meanwhile, grapple with grief and frustration. David Maland’s fiancée, Clara Ruiz, has become an advocate for stricter monitoring of online extremism. “These weren’t masterminds,” she told Congress in March 2025. “They were lost kids who weaponised philosophy because no one stepped in to say, ‘This isn’t normal.’”

A Movement Transformed: The Rise of Post-Rationalism

In the rationalist community’s ashes, a new wave dubbed “post-rationalism” has emerged. Rejecting Yudkowsky’s rigid Bayesian frameworks, adherents blend spirituality with self-help, hosting retreats on “embracing uncertainty” and “ethical intuition.” CFar, now rebranded as the Center for Integrative Wisdom, offers meditation sessions alongside logic workshops—a stark departure from its origins.

Yet remnants of the old guard persist. On LessWrong, once a bastion of AI-risk discourse, users dissect the Ziz saga as a cautionary tale. “We treated ideas like abstract games,” wrote one member in a March 2025 post. “But when you forget that words shape reality, reality bites back.”

The Aftermath: Trials, Tribulations, and Unanswered Questions

As of mid-2025, the legal proceedings against the Zizians remain mired in complexity. Alex Leatham’s trial for Curtis Lind’s murder has been postponed indefinitely after psychiatrists diagnosed her with schizoaffective disorder. Tessa Berns, now 21, faces separate charges related to the Vallejo attack, though her lawyers argue that her mental state—documented self-harm and erratic jail behaviour—renders her unfit for trial. Maximilian Snyder, meanwhile, awaits sentencing in California after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, a deal struck to avoid the death penalty.

Ziz’s own legal battles have stalled. Prosecutors in Maryland and Pennsylvania lack concrete evidence tying her to the homicides, and her defence team has successfully delayed hearings by citing health concerns. During a July 2025 parole hearing, Ziz reiterated her innocence, claiming authorities “scapegoat marginalised voices to protect Silicon Valley’s elites.” Outside the courthouse, a small group of supporters waved placards reading “Free Ziz—AI Justice Now,” underscoring the lingering divide in public perception.

Broader Implications: AI Ethics in the Spotlight

The Ziz saga has intensified scrutiny of AI research’s ethical frameworks. In June 2025, the European Union passed the Artificial Intelligence Accountability Act, mandating psychological evaluations for researchers working on “high-risk” AI projects. Similarly, Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI launched a $50m initiative to study the societal impacts of existential risk movements, with a focus on preventing radicalisation.

Eliezer Yudkowsky, though reclusive, released a rare public statement in May 2025: “The tragedy lies not in the ideas themselves, but in their distortion. We must pursue truth without surrendering to despair.” Critics, however, argue his rhetoric remains dangerously abstract. “Yudkowsky’s theories ignore human fragility,” counters Dr. Emily Tran, a Berkeley sociologist. “When you tell people the world might end, some will try to burn it down themselves.”

Voices from the Wreckage: Victims and Survivors

For those directly affected, closure remains elusive. Clara Ruiz, David Maland’s fiancée, has channeled grief into advocacy, founding the Maland Initiative to support families of federal agents killed in the line of duty. “David believed in protecting others,” she said at a 2025 fundraiser. “Honouring him means fighting the ideologies that took his life.”

Curtis Lind’s sister, Margaret, has sued the Vallejo city council for failing to enforce eviction laws, seeking $2m in damages. The case, ongoing, highlights broader tensions over housing policy and mental health resources in California. Meanwhile, Rita and Richard Zajko’s relatives continue to press for Michelle Zajko’s prosecution, though prosecutors cite insufficient evidence.

Zizians and the Transformation From Rationalism to Reflection

The rationalist movement, once a beacon for tech idealists, now grapples with irrelevance. CFar’s rebranding as the Center for Integrative Wisdom has attracted fewer than 100 attendees to its 2025 workshops—a stark drop from its peak of 1,200 annual participants. LessWrong, meanwhile, has pivoted to climate change and bioethics, with AI-risk threads relegated to niche subforums.

Yet pockets of resilience endure. Rachel Wolford’s startup, Ethos Labs, secures $4m in venture funding to develop AI tools that detect online radicalisation patterns. “We can’t let fear stifle innovation,” she insists. Former Miri researchers have also found new purpose, collaborating with neuroscientists to map decision-making processes in traumatised brains.

Zizians Between Shadows and Light in the Age of AI

The story of Ziz and her followers is, ultimately, a parable for the digital age—a warning of how lofty ideals, untethered from empathy, can curdle into fanaticism. Their alleged crimes did not derail AI progress, nor did they validate the doomers’ bleakest prophecies. Instead, they exposed the fragility of communities that prize intellect over humanity, and the ease with which disaffection can be weaponised.

As AI development accelerates, the challenge lies in balancing caution with hope. The Zizians’ descent into violence underscores the need for ethical guardrails, but also for compassion in addressing the isolation that fuels extremism. Silicon Valley’s brightest minds once believed they could outthink catastrophe. The lesson, perhaps, is that saving the future requires not just logic, but listening—to the whispers of doubt, the cries for help, and the quiet truths that bind us all.