Reed Hastings Gives Bowdoin College $50 Million, Its Largest Gift Ever
Netflix founder Reed Hastings has made a $50 million gift to his alma mater, Bowdoin College. (Photo ... More by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings has given Bowdoin College a $50 million gift. The donation is the largest in the institution's 231-year history and will be used to create the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity.
The funding will be used initially to:
'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 Bowdoin College President Safa Zaki in a news release. Zaki is a psychologist whose research focuses on building and testing computational models of the mind.
The funds from Hastings will support Bowdoin's current and new faculty who want to explore the pedagogical and scholarship questions that are being generated by the AI revolution.
'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, who followed his graduation from Bowdoin in 1983 by earning his MSc in artificial intelligence at Stanford University in 1988. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Hastings was a Peace Corps high school math teacher in Swaziland.
'As AI becomes smarter than humans, we are going to need some deep thinking to keep us flourishing. I know Bowdoin can make a significant contribution to these fundamental issues, and that President Zaki, a cognitive scientist, can lead the way,' he added.
Zaki said that Bowdoin was 'ideally positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities of AI,' citing its 'deep commitment to the liberal arts and the common good.' She noted that "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.' About Reed Hastings
After his graduation from Bowdoin, where he was encouraged to study AI by the late professor of mathematics Steve Fisk, Hastings cofounded Netflix in 1997, building the company into the world's leading internet television network. He became executive chairman in 2023 after twenty-five years as CEO.
Forbes pegs Hastings's current worth at $5.5 billion.
Hastings served on the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004, and he's currently on the board of several educational organizations including KIPP and Pahara. He is also a board member of The City Fund and Bloomberg.
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