The $50 million gift from the Netflix co-founder and former CEO is the largest in the college's 231-year history. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1983, he went on to earn a master's in artificial intelligence from Stanford University in 1988.
"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 in a statement.
The Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity will "be a step forward in higher education's growing role to provide ethical frameworks for technology," according to Bowdoin. Initial priorities include hiring 10 new faculty members in a range of disciplines; supporting faculty who want to incorporate and interrogate AI in their teaching, research and artistic work; and leading conversations about the uses of AI and the changes and challenges it will bring. Funding and fellowships will allow current and new faculty to explore questions and pedagogical and scholarship opportunities generated by AI, Bowdoin said.
"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, whose research focuses on building and testing computational models of the mind.
Hastings added, "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."
Founded in 1794, Bowdoin is located in Brunswick, Maine. It has about 2,000 undergraduate students and offers more than 40 majors.
Hastings cofounded Netflix in 1997 and became executive chairman in 2023 after 25 years as CEO. Hastings is an active educational philanthropist and served on the California State Board of Education from 2000-04. He is currently on the board of several educational organizations including KIPP and Pahara. He is also a board member of The City Fund and Bloomberg.
After graduating from Bowdoin and before attending Stanford, Hastings served as a Peace Corps high school math teacher in Swaziland.
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