Jared Polis denies involvement in Peter Thiel’s secretive Dialog society, despite name drop

What do Elon Musk, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gov. Jared Polis have in common? They’re all among the names on an internal directory for Dialog, a formerly super-secret network cofounded by Peter Thiel of Palantir.

The leaked directory lists 113 individuals supposedly affiliated with Dialog, including top politicians, foreign officials, tech executives, military leaders, celebrities and journalists. A separate list reportedly shows 222 people registered to attend Dialog’s upcoming retreat in August, with scheduled discussions on cults, artificial intelligence and World War III. The leaks were first revealed on Jun 15 by Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew and reported by Wired on June 16.

Reports of the shadowy meetings of global elites have inspired concerns regarding conflicts of interest and comparisons to the Illuminati. But Polis says he has nothing to do with it — “whatever it is.”

“No, Governor Polis is not a member of this organization, whatever it is,” spokesperson Eric Maruyama says. “He does not know why his name is associated with the organization in any way or appeared on their website. He does not recall ever having attended functions hosted by them and has not previously heard of them.”

The retreat registration list differentiates between members, prospects and guests. But the directory does not specify how the named individuals are purportedly involved with Dialog, and appears to include non-members, according to Wired.

Several of those named in the directory have come forward with various explanations for why they’re featured on the list, outside of membership. However, Polis is unique in his outright denial of having any knowledge of the group.

Actor Gordon-Levitt, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and retired U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal all say they attended multiple Dialog conferences but are not members. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and actress Sophia Bush say they were recruited to speak at past Dialog events. Matt Clifford, the prime minister of the United Kingdom’s former AI adviser, says he was invited to a Dialog conference but did not attend. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker says he “might have” attended when he was mayor of Newark.

European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas denies any current association with Dialog, saying she is not a member and will not attend the August conference. Kallas had previously been publicly linked to the group; Axios reported in August 2025 that Kallas participated in a prior Dialog event.

That same 2025 Axios article alluded to Polis as a Dialog participant, citing an anonymous source who had been invited to participate in the organization. “A given session could have the likes of Reid Hoffman, Ted Cruz, Jared Polis, Lori Gottlieb, and Eric Schmidt discussing AI’s energy demands, the future of health care, and political realignments,” the article reads. Each of those individuals, except for Gottlieb, was later named in the directory leak.

The Axios article has since been updated with a statement from Polis’ office, denying the governor’s involvement. Two days after this article was published, Polis’ office sent the following statement from the governor:

“Encouraging dialogue between those with differing viewpoints is important, and if this organization helps do that, then it can help people disagree better. But they should have these conversations in public. I encourage this organization and any others with similar missions to bring these conversations more into the open to share differing opinions and help foster constructive discussions between people of differing viewpoints.”

Dialog, Wired and the hacker, crimew, did not respond to inquiries seeking to clarify the reason for Polis’ appearance on the directory.

The agenda for the upcoming August retreat in Ireland includes talks titled “Navigating WWIII,” “Build-a-Cult” and “Money (Does?) Buy Happiness,” Wired reports. According to Straight Arrow News,aAnother is called “It’s Fun to Be in Charge.” Individuals who reportedly registered to attend the retreat range from officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Anti-Defamation League, to Google executives and actor Josh Brolin. When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Brolin told the Hollywood Reporter he would “like to know what the fuck he got himself into.”

Tickets to a Dialog retreat four years ago reportedly went for nearly $17,000 a piece, according to an invitation to statistician Andrew Gelman, which he shared online in February 2022.

The organization claims to have no ideological agenda or partisanship, its website notes. The common denominator among members appears to be their involvement in the tech industry, rather than a particular political leaning. Past retreat participants Gordon-Levitt and Klein described the attendees as an “ideologically diverse crowd,” including individuals on both the far left and far right.

Thiel himself is a mega-donor to the Republican Party, credited for funding JD Vance’s rapid political rise to vice president. He has openly spoken against the democratic system, proclaiming that it is not “compatible” with freedom. Last year, he made headlines for hosting a series of talks warning that Armageddon is coming and discussing the identity of the Antichrist.

The billionaire also cofounded PayPal and Palantir, a software company that supplies AI technology to the Israel Defense Forces for the war in Gaza; it is also a long-time contractor with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, building ICE a surveillance platform and providing technology used to conduct mass deportation raids.

Palantir moved its headquarters to Denver from Palo Alto, California, in 2020. The company left Denver in February, relocating to Miami, Florida.

This article was updated on June 26 to include a statement from Governor Jared Polis.