Leader of MIT Media Lab Steps Down After Revelation of Extensive Ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Creative Commons

Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, resigned on Saturday, less than a day after an exposé appeared in The New Yorker about the lab’s extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the accused child-sex trafficker.

The article, based on interviews with whistle-blowers and pages of internal emails, revealed that the Media Lab had continued to accept gifts from Epstein, despite being aware that the financier had pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution in 2008, and even though he had been categorized as “disqualified” in MIT’s donor database.

The lab reportedly marked his contributions as anonymous in an apparent effort to minimize awareness of the relationship. It also used him as a go-between for $7.5 million in gifts from other wealthy donors, apparently including Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black, according to the article.

MIT had previously acknowledged receiving about $800,000 over 20 years from foundations Epstein controlled. The money had been given to the lab and to Seth Lloyd, a professor of mechanical engineering, who has apologized for accepting the gifts, decisions that he described as “professional as well as moral failings.”

Ito resigned on Saturday in an e-mail to the provost, Martin A. Schmidt, which was obtained by The New York Times. “After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks,” Ito wrote, “I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately.” He had held an appointment as a professor of practice in media arts and sciences.

In a statement, L. Rafael Reif, MIT’s president, described the article’s allegations as “deeply disturbing” and “extremely serious,” and directed the general counsel to engage a law firm to conduct “an immediate, thorough and independent investigation.”

Reif also reiterated a sentiment he’d expressed in a previous statement on the matter: that the decision to accept gifts from Epstein “involved a mistake of judgment.”

The developments are the latest instances of turmoil for the Media Lab, which has come under fire for its ties to Epstein. Last month Ito issued an apology and vowed to raise an amount equal to what Epstein had donated to the lab, $525,000, and give it to organizations that serve vicitims of sex trafficking.

Ito also said he would return the $1.2 million he had gotten from Epstein for investment funds controlled by the lab director.

Those steps, however, weren’t enough to mollify two scholars at the Media Lab, who resigned in protest in August.

Epstein hanged himself in August in a New York City prison cell, where he was awaiting trial on child-sex-trafficking charges.

Dan Berrett writes about teaching, learning, the curriculum, and educational quality. Follow him on Twitter @danberrett, or write to him at dan.berrett@chronicle.com.