Reed Hastings is giving $50 million to his alma mater, liberal arts school Bowdoin College in Maine, to fund AI research and teaching within “ethical frameworks.” The $50 million gift from the Netflix co-founder and former CEO is the largest in the college’s 231-year history. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1983, he went on to earn a master’s in artificial intelligence from Stanford University in 1988.
“This donation seeks to advance Bowdoin’s mission of cultivating wisdom for the common good by deepening the college’s engagement with one of humanity’s most transformative developments: artificial intelligence,” said Hastings in a statement. The Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity will “be a step forward in higher education’s growing role to provide ethical frameworks for technology,” according to Bowdoin. Initial priorities include hiring 10 new faculty members in a range of disciplines; supporting faculty who want to incorporate and interrogate AI in their teaching, research and artistic work; and leading conversations about the uses of AI and the changes and challenges it will bring.
Funding and fellowships will allow current and new faculty to explore questions and pedagogical and scholarship opportunities generated by AI, Bowdoin said. “We are thrilled and so grateful to receive this remarkable support from Reed, who shares our conviction that the AI revolution makes the liberal arts and a Bowdoin education more essential to society,” said.
