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Given Epstein can no longer provide any personal accounts, I'm not sure we can really take much from this. Maybe he was really interested in AI and thus was naturally responsive to funding discussions. Maybe utilitarian AI researchers thought a somewhat disgraced financier was a good target. Maybe he received a normal amount of contacts from AI researchers and if we went through the emails of all the big VCs and private investors we'd find a similar number of emails from AI people.
I'm sure we have a fair few people here who have done the start-up funding gamut and could say the same, but for me getting the attention of potential funders is a pure numbers game (it's apparently much easier in the US compared to my experience in the UK, but still). There are only a small number of rich people and VCs, and a very large number of potential funding projects. You'll do anything to get a call back or a bit of interest. Some Epstein guy sends you an email? Get in, and he's rich. GoGoGo. It's only later you might bother to look into him.
Not sure on this. It could be, but it doesn't feel nearly salacious enough. I'd imagine it's much more likely that muckrackers are looking in general for pieces like this on the major AI founders and this was one of the more interesting, and publishable tidbits, as opposed to something targeted.
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