Roger Schank

Roger Schank (1946–2023) was an American artificial-intelligence theorist, cognitive psychologist, learning scientist and educational reformer. He pioneered conceptual dependency theory for natural-language understanding in 1969, helped develop case-based reasoning, and introduced the “scripts, plans and goals” framework for modeling human knowledge. He held positions at Stanford and Yale (where he worked from 1974 to 1989) and in 1989 founded the Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.

Reporting on the Epstein files indicates that, in Florida, Schank was a neighbor of Jeffrey Epstein and attended an artificial intelligence conference sponsored by him on his island in 2002, six years before Epstein was convicted of a sex offense in 2008, and that after the conviction Schank showed public support for him.

The released files include emails from Schank that reporting describes as deeply misogynist, with derogatory statements about women’s intelligence, sexually explicit language, and disparagement of other experts. An independent tracker, the Epstein Web project, similarly describes Schank as a Palm Beach neighbor and email correspondent of Epstein and notes continuing contact around 2009 after Epstein’s Florida case. Schank died in 2023; the released correspondence and reporting concerning it are posthumous.

Is Roger Schank in the Epstein files?

Yes. According to the Epstein Web tracker reviewed for this profile and other reporting on the released files, Roger Schank was a Florida neighbor of Jeffrey Epstein, attended a 2002 AI conference Epstein sponsored on his island, publicly supported Epstein after his 2008 conviction, and was the author of emails released among 2026 Epstein-file disclosures that reporting describes as deeply misogynist. Being named in or appearing in these documents is not, by itself, evidence of any crime. People appear in this material in many contexts — correspondence, contact books, scheduling, photographs, or passing references. See the sources above for the specific documented context.

Documents

Primary-source records that name or reference Roger Schank. Inclusion in these documents is not, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing.

• DOJ Epstein Files (full EFTA release portal) — Per The Daily Northwestern and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Feb.–Mar. 2026), the DOJ release contains years of email and text correspondence between Schank and Epstein, running from roughly 2009 to 2017 — after Epstein’s 2008 conviction — including messages that reporting describes as deeply misogynist.