Can a $350 Million Gift Change AI’s Trajectory?

Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman’s mega gift aims to develop ethically grounded AI leaders and accelerate America’s competitiveness. In 2018, ChatGPT was four years away and artificial intelligence was a wonky concern for tech and policy thinkers. But thanks to what billionaire financier Stephen Schwarzman saw on business trips to China, he was already worried about Chinese dominance of the technology and wanted to increase American competitiveness. He was also concerned about the potentially disastrous impact on the U.S. work force, economy, and national security. That year he gave the Massachusetts Institute of Technology $350 million to develop campuswide interdisciplinary programs to help its students better understand AI’s impact on people’s lives. The goal: to responsibly harness the power of AI by shaping a more ethical and thoughtful generation of AI leaders who will help U.S. companies dominate the field.