By Desmond Davies, GNA London Bureau Chief
London, June 19, GNA – American billionaire, Stephen A. Schwarzman, has given £150 million to Oxford University, the largest single donation to a British university, for the study of the Humanities.
The new Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities will be home to Oxford’s new Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, which will look at the ethical implications of AI and other new computing technologies in the 21st century.
Mr Schwarzman, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder of Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms with over US$500 billion assets under management, said the Institute would “explore crucial questions affecting the workplace and society”.
“We need to ensure that its insights and principles can be adapted to today’s dynamic world. “Oxford’s longstanding global leadership in the Humanities uniquely positions it to achieve this important objective,” he added.
Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “The new Schwarzman Centre will open a vibrant cultural programme to the public and will enable Oxford to remain at the forefront of both research and teaching while demonstrating the critical role the Humanities will play in helping human society navigate the technological changes of the 21st century.”
At a time when significant investments are being made in scientific and technological research and development, questions are being about what effect AI is going to have on human life.
From health and wellbeing to the future of work and manufacturing, experts at Oxford say AI would redefine the way people live, work and interact.
“Just as the Humanities helped guide the debate on medical ethics 30 years ago, so they will be even more essential in providing an ethical framework for developing machine intelligence, for responding to the increasing automation of work, and the use of algorithms in all walks of life,” the university said in a statement.
Neil MacGregor, art historian and former Director of the British Museum, said the gift to the university was “timely as it is generous”.
“The way we make new knowledge is changing.
“And soon Oxford will, thanks to this gift, have a building specifically designed both to foster a new way of working, and to share its benefits as widely as possible.”
English author, Sir Philip Pullman, said: “This is a time when technology is making new media, new forms of communication, new ways of thinking available to a much wider range of students and citizens than ever before, but also when the roots of humane study need nourishing and strengthening – and indeed protecting – in a world that sometimes seems to have lost touch with the best elements of its past.”
Oxford has led the world in the study of Humanities and Ethics for nearly 1,000 years and today offers depth and range of expertise across disciplines.
The Humanities Division draws students, researchers, and faculty from around the globe, with 25 per cent of all Oxford students pursuing studies in the Humanities.
The university says the donation will allow it to grow its academic posts and scholarships, helping to attract the next generation of students to the Humanities, including those from under-represented backgrounds.
Mr Schwarzman is an active philanthropist, having donated US$350 million in October last year to establish the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing to address critical ethical and policy issues that would ensure that AI is employed for the common good.
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