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Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has made the largest single gift in Bowdoin College’s 231-year history.
The $50 million donation will help the Brunswick college launch the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity.
“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,” Hastings, who earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from Bowdoin and a master’s in artificial intelligence from Stanford University, said in a Monday statement. “As AI becomes smarter than humans, we are going to need some deep thinking to keep us flourishing.”
The initiative’s goal is to create ethical frameworks for technology and ensure Bowdoin graduates are well-positioned for a world with artificial intelligence. The first step will be hiring 10 faculty who want to incorporate and explore AI in their teaching, research and art, according to the college.
Bowdoin President Safa Zaki said the college is “grateful” for Hastings’ “remarkable support” for the school’s mission.
“Bowdoin is ideally positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities of AI. Our deep commitment to the liberal arts and the common good position us to think together about what we are going to value in human cognition, and what we will want our AI systems to do or not do going forward in service to humanity. Ethics, human values, and human understanding should inform the technological progress, scientific advancements, and new norms that will emerge from this revolution. As educators, we have a moral imperative to do this work,” Zaki said.
Hastings graduated from Bowdoin in 1983 and from Stanford in 1988. He went on to co-found Netflix in 1997. In 2023, Hastings became executive chairman of Netflix after serving as CEO for 25 years. He also is CEO of Powder Mountain, a Utah ski resort.
