Bowdoin College just got the largest financial infusion it's ever received in its 231-year history, courtesy of one of its most famous former students. Reed Hastings, who graduated from the Maine liberal arts college in 1983, has ponied up $50 million to his alma mater for the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity, a program with the express purpose of making Bowdoin a "mecca" for studying the risks and consequences of artificial intelligence, reports the New York Times. "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," Hastings says in a release.
One of the program's first goals: Hire 10 new faculty members and bolster current faculty who "want to incorporate and interrogate AI in their teaching, research, and artistic work," per the release. "We're going to be fighting for the survival of humanity and the flourishing of humanity," Hastings tells the Times, likening AI's explosive growth—and the consequences of that explosive growth—to that of social media. "The AI change, I think, will be much bigger than the social networking change. So it's important to get started early before we're overwhelmed by the problems."
WMTW notes that, in addition to his degree from Bowdoin, Hastings has a Master in Science degree from Stanford, in artificial intelligence. The initiative came about after conversations between Hastings and Bowdoin President Safa Zaki over the past few months. "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," Zaki says in the release. To the Times she notes: "We have a moral imperative, as educators, to take this on, to confront AI." (More Reed Hastings stories.)
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