M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion - The New York Times

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/mit-college-artificial-intelligence.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Technology
>
> M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion
>
> Oct. 15, 2018
>
> The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is taking a particularly ambitious step in preparing students to develop, 
> and consider the implications of, artificial intelligence. It is creating a new college, backed by a planned 
> investment of $1 billion.Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times
> Every major university is wrestling with how to adapt to the technology wave of artificial intelligence — how to 
> prepare students not only to harness the powerful tools of A.I., but also to thoughtfully weigh its ethical and 
> social implications. A.I. courses, conferences and joint majors have proliferated in the last few years.
>
> But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is taking a particularly ambitious step, creating a new college backed 
> by a planned investment of $1 billion. Two-thirds of the funds have already been raised, M.I.T. said, in announcing 
> the initiative on Monday.
>
> The linchpin gift of $350 million came from Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group, the big 
> private equity firm. The college, called the M.I.T. Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, will create 50 new 
> faculty positions and many more fellowships for graduate students.
>
> It is scheduled to begin in the fall semester next year, housed in other buildings before moving into its own new 
> space in 2022.
>
> The goal of the college, said L. Rafael Reif, the president of M.I.T., is to “educate the bilinguals of the future.” 
> He defines bilinguals as people in fields like biology, chemistry, politics, history and linguistics who are also 
> skilled in the techniques of modern computing that can be applied to them.
>
> But, he said, “to educate bilinguals, we have to create a new structure.”
>
> Academic departments still tend to be silos, Mr. Reif explained, despite interdisciplinary programs that cross the 
> departmental boundaries. Half the 50 faculty positions will focus on advancing computer science, and the other half 
> will be jointly appointed by the college and by other departments across M.I.T.
>
> Traditionally, departments hold sway in hiring and tenure decisions at universities. So, for example, a researcher 
> who applied A.I.-based text analysis tools in a field like history might be regarded as too much a computer scientist 
> by the humanities department and not sufficiently technical by the computer science department.
>
> M.I.T.’s leaders hope the new college will alter traditional academic thinking and practice.
>
> “We need to rewire how we hire and promote faculty,” said Martin Schmidt, the provost of M.I.T.
>
> Today, most dual-major programs involve taking courses in a computer science department in machine learning or data 
> science in addition to a student’s major. The M.I.T. college is an effort to have computing baked into the curriculum 
> rather than stapled on. It will grant degrees, though what they will be or their names have not been determined.
>
> That appealed to Melissa Nobles, dean of M.I.T.’s School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, who said she saw 
> the new college as helping non-computer scientists bring A.I. tools to their fields — “to what they really care 
> about.”
>
> The college, Ms. Nobles said, offers the possibility of a renewal for humanities studies at M.I.T., where students 
> flock to computer science and engineering.
>
> “We’re excited by the possibilities,” she said. “That’s how the humanities are going to survive, not by running from 
> the future but by embracing it.”
>
>
> Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, has given $350 million for 
> the new college, to be called the M.I.T. Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
> Donors, like students, are attracted more to computer science programs than to many other disciplines. But the new 
> college at M.I.T. is designed to spread the wealth.
>
> “It’s a major fund-raising mechanism that gives M.I.T. a huge resource to apply A.I. to other fields,” said Eric 
> Schmidt, who was the executive chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and is a visiting innovation 
> fellow at M.I.T.
>
> The college and its goals were shaped by a long-running conversation between Mr. Schwarzman, the principal donor, and 
> Mr. Reif, the M.I.T. president. They first met in 2015 when Mr. Schwarzman was setting up the Schwarzman Scholars 
> program, which awards scholarships for young people to gain a greater understanding of China.
>
> At the time, Mr. Schwarzman was becoming increasingly fascinated by the debate over the opportunity and challenge 
> presented by artificial intelligence. A lengthy conversation with Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant 
> Alibaba, piqued his interest, Mr. Schwarzman recalled, and he kept talking to experts and reading.
>
> “I became convinced that this technology was so powerful it was really going to remake a lot of the world as we know 
> it,” he said.
>
> Over the next few years, Mr. Schwarzman and Mr. Reif picked up the conversation about the trajectory of A.I. and its 
> broad impact, when their paths crossed in places like New York and Davos, Switzerland.
>
> Over the past year, M.I.T.’s leaders and faculty were brainstorming to chart a course for the university’s future. 
> The university had done individual initiatives in areas like the future of work and a research project on the human 
> and machine intelligence.
>
> But Mr. Schwarzman urged Mr. Reif to go further, emphasizing the ethical issues raised by automated decision-making 
> in everything from medical diagnosis to self-driving cars. He also stressed the workplace impact.
>
> “We really need to try to understand this technology, not just get hit by it,” Mr. Schwarzman said.
>
> Meanwhile, Mr. Reif was also focused on making a universitywide impact. His persistent question: “How do I make sure 
> these tools are used by everyone in every discipline?”
>
> The new college structure was his answer. Mr. Schwarzman said he would be interested in contributing, and soon after, 
> Mr. Reif made his pitch.
>
> “Well, that is a big number,” Mr. Schwarzman said, recalling his initial reaction.
>
> After further study, he said yes.
>
> Mr. Schwarzman said he hoped that the M.I.T. move might trigger others to invest in America’s A.I. future, not just 
> commercially. He points to the major push the Chinese government is making, and notes the fruits of United States 
> government-funded research in the past — technologies that helped America take the global lead in industries from the 
> personal computer to the internet.
>
> “I think we’ve been lagging, for whatever reason,” Mr. Schwarzman said.
>
> Correction: October 15, 2018
> An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the chief executive of the Blackstone Group. He is 
> Stephen A. Schwarzman, not Steven. The error was repeated in a picture caption.
>
> Follow Steve Lohr on Twitter: @SteveLohr
>
> A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 16, 2018, on Page B7 of the New York edition with the headline: 
> M.I.T. Creates a College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe


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