MIT Lands $350 Million for Computing and Artificial-Intelligence Studies

Photo by Christopher Harting

New York financier Stephen Schwarzman has given MIT $350 million for its new College of Computing, which has been named for him, the university announced on Monday.

The new college aims to be the center of the university’s efforts to integrate computer science, artificial intelligence, data science, and related fields across all of the university’s five schools, with a special emphasis on new discoveries and the ethical application of artificial intelligence.

“There is no more important opportunity or challenge facing our nation than to responsibly harness the power of artificial intelligence so that we remain competitive globally,” Schwarzman said in a news release. “We face fundamental questions about how to ensure that technological advancements benefit all, especially those most vulnerable to the radical changes A.I. will inevitably bring to the nature of the work force.”

Photo courtesy of Blackstone

Schwarzman’s gift comes at a time when big donations from philanthropists to artificial-intelligence programs and research are growing. A recent tally by the Chronicle of gifts of $1 million or more to such efforts showed a total of more than $583 million has been given to A.I. programs since 2015.

Schwarzman’s latest donation is the largest of multiple gifts he has given to technology efforts in recent years. A few weeks ago, he gave $5 million to Harvard Business School to back the development of case studies and other programs that explore the implications of artificial intelligence on industries, business, and markets.

In February, he gave $25 million to Abington High School, which he attended, for renovations and a new science and technology center.

A longtime supporter of education, Schwarzman, a co-founder of the New York investment firm Blackstone Group, has given a number of major gifts in recent years to universities, including a $100 million donation in 2013 to Tsinghua University, in Beijing. That gift endowed the Schwarzman Scholars program, which provides tuition aid to graduate students from all over the world to study at the university’s School of Economics and Management.

In 2015, he gave $150 million to Yale, his alma mater, to renovate its historic Commons and Memorial Hall into a high-tech student-life and cultural center.

To date, Schwarzman has given a total of at least $758 million to nonprofits over the past decade, according to a Chronicle tally, and has landed on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors three times since 2008.

Schwarzman’s latest gift is part of a $1 billion effort MIT is directing toward the new college. His donation will not only pay for the new building but will also create a new dean position plus 50 new faculty posts, 25 in advanced computing and 25 in other departments across MIT.

The college is scheduled to open in September 2019 and the new building in 2022.