For two decades, Dialog—an invitation-only organization co-founded by tech investor Peter Thiel in 2006—refused to reveal its members. That secrecy ended with a data breach. Wired reported on June 16 that the registration list for Dialog's 2026 closed-door retreat was exposed online, containing 222 names, of which 87 were first-time attendees. The list includes US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Jared Kushner, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Senator Ted Cruz, and other power brokers from government, tech, and finance.
Dialog: Tech's Bilderberg Meeting
According to Wired, Dialog hosts annual off-the-record retreats that bring together US officials, foreign government figures, and Silicon Valley executives. The chairman is SafeGraph and LiveRamp founder Auren Hoffman; the executive director is Raffi Grinberg, author of "How to Be a Grown Up." The retreat enforces strict rules: assigned seating, facilitator-led discussions, no ad hominem attacks, and brief introductions to avoid signaling status.
How the Data Leaked
The leak originated from an unprotected directory in the dialog.org website source code. The tip came anonymously to Swiss hacker maia arson crimew—known for exposing the US No Fly List and hacking Verkada. crimew told Wired that Dialog's data lived in an Airtable database, and the app.dialog.org page had no access controls or invitation verification. A second source then provided the full 2026 registration list. Ironically, Airtable's founders are also members.
Who‘s on the List
Government & Military: Secretary Bessent, Senators Ted Cruz and Cory Booker, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Rep. Jim Himes, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich, and an unnamed ambassador. Tech & Business: Musk, Kushner, Schmidt, Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, six “PayPal Mafia” members, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Quora founder Adam D’Angelo, Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker, and others. Finance & Policy: former Fed official Randy Kroszner, former DEA general counsel Hallie Hoffman, Nobel laureate Roger Myerson. The list also includes ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, nuclear startup Oklo co-founder Caroline Cochran, and a diverse set of names from actress Sophia Bush to behavioral scientist Bob Cialdini.
More Than Just Names: Political Leaning, Biometrics, and Matchmaking
The leaked data goes beyond identities: it includes each attendee‘s political leaning—despite Dialog’s promise that data “would never be shared in the app or with other participants.” There is also a “find love” field tracking whether registrants indicated single male, single female, or other, plus biometric data, home cities, past attendance records, and even private access credentials (which Wired did not publish). This level of sensitive exposure could be devastating for the organization’s credibility.
2026 Agenda: From “Build a Cult” to “Navigate World War III”
The retreat is scheduled for August 12-16, 2026, at Powerscourt Hotel in Dublin, Ireland. Wired revealed sessions including “Does Money Buy Happiness,” “Reviving Nuclear,” “Navigating World War III,” “Battlefield Tech,” and “How Is Your Sex Life?” One session called “Build a Cult” is led by the founder of Christian social network Pray.com; another “Build a Party” by a former White House national security official. Attendance fees exceeded $16,000 in 2022. Attendees‘ predictions for the future range from AI reshaping work, war, education, and belief, to mass job displacement and union revival, an “AI winter,” terrorist attacks on data centers, or religious revival. Wired also noted that Jeffrey Epstein appeared on Dialog’s 2014 invitation list, though his actual attendance is unknown. Those named in the article did not respond to requests for comment; Dialog executive director Raffi Grinberg also did not respond.