Katie Zacharia Was Linked to an AI Rare-Earths Startup. It’s Even Weirder Than It Sounds

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Before being fired five days into her stint as White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia spent much of the day attempting to explain her past.

在担任白宫新闻秘书仅五天就被解雇之前，凯蒂·扎卡里亚（Katie Zacharia）花了一整天的大部分时间试图解释她的过去。

Throughout her brief tenure, Zacharia’s resume was the source of much intrigue. Foremost was the fact that despite claiming to be an attorney for much of her career, she never actually passed the California bar, as she was eventually forced to admit. Another element of her professional history, WIRED reported, was a role as an affiliate marketer for Beachbody, a fitness MLM.

在她短暂的任期内，扎卡里亚的履历引起了许多人的好奇。最主要的事实是，尽管她职业生涯的大部分时间都声称自己是一名律师，但她实际上从未通过加州律师资格考试，这一点她最终被迫承认。据《连线》（WIRED）报道，她职业生涯的另一个组成部分是曾担任健身传销公司 Beachbody 的附属营销人员。

WIRED has now uncovered new details of her relationship to an AI-powered rare earths mining operation called NRED Intelligent Mining, which counts former Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem as a strategic advisor.

《连线》杂志现已披露了她与一家名为 NRED Intelligent Mining 的人工智能稀土开采公司之间关系的更多细节，该公司将前国土安全部部长克里斯蒂·诺姆（Kristi Noem）列为战略顾问。

On June 24, NRED—then known as NovaRed Mining, a small copper-and-gold exploration company in Vancouver, Canada—issued a release to share that Zacharia, who had left a role as a DHS spokesperson two months before, was joining the advisory board alongside Noem.

6月24日，NRED（当时名为 NovaRed Mining，一家位于加拿大温哥华的小型铜金勘探公司）发布公告称，两个月前刚卸任国土安全部发言人的扎卡里亚将与诺姆一同加入顾问委员会。

In her new role, according to the release, Zacharia would provide “strategic guidance” to NovaRed’s board of directors as it advanced exploration projects as well as “emerging artificial intelligence initiatives.”

根据公告，扎卡里亚在新职位上将为 NovaRed 董事会提供“战略指导”，以推进其勘探项目以及“新兴人工智能计划”。

It does not appear, though, that she ever worked there. When asked on Friday whether she was still on the board, she said, “That was fake,” and referred WIRED to Sam Amsterdam, a “strategic marketing and media engagement professional” whose clients have included the government of Kazakhstan and political parties in Georgia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

然而，她似乎从未在那里工作过。周五当被问及她是否仍在董事会时，她说：“那是假的”，并将《连线》转介给萨姆·阿姆斯特丹（Sam Amsterdam）。阿姆斯特丹是一位“战略营销和媒体参与专业人士”，其客户包括哈萨克斯坦政府以及格鲁吉亚、尼日利亚和津巴布韦的政党。

“That release was not approved by Ms. Zacharia and was issued without her consent,” says Amsterdam, whose brother is listed as a member of NRED management on the company’s website and said he was speaking as a friend and colleague of Zacharia, not a representative. “I know all that to be factual.” He quickly added that while there had been discussions of her joining the company, she hadn’t actually done so.

“该公告未经扎卡里亚女士批准，是在未经她同意的情况下发布的，”阿姆斯特丹说。他的兄弟在公司网站上被列为 NRED 管理层成员，他表示自己是以扎卡里亚的朋友和同事身份发言，而非代表。“我知道这一切都是事实。”他随即补充说，虽然曾讨论过她加入公司的事宜，但她实际上并没有加入。

Valentin Saitarli, who was NRED’s chief technology officer and says he is onboarding as CEO, confirmed that there were discussions about a role, but said that it “never materialized,” adding, “It was a bit like signing up for a gym but never actually going for a workout.” Describing NRED, Saitarli says, ”We go full robots and AI.”

曾任 NRED 首席技术官并称即将入职担任首席执行官的瓦伦丁·赛塔利（Valentin Saitarli）证实，双方确实讨论过一个职位，但表示该计划“从未实现”，并补充说：“这有点像办了健身卡却从不去锻炼。”在描述 NRED 时，赛塔利说：“我们全面采用机器人和人工智能。”

Despite Amsterdam’s understanding that it had been withdrawn, the press release claiming Zacharia was joining the company remained on NRED’s website as of Friday. An archived version of their website showed Zacharia listed as management as of at least July.

尽管阿姆斯特丹认为该公告已被撤回，但截至周五，声称扎卡里亚加入公司的公告仍保留在 NRED 的网站上。网站的存档版本显示，至少在7月份，扎卡里亚仍被列为管理层成员。

When WIRED asked Saitarli about this, he said that the site was being updated.

当《连线》就此事询问赛塔利时，他表示网站正在更新中。