MIT will create a new college with courses combining AI, mechanical learning, data science and other academic disciplines. With funding of 1 billion dollars, it will be the largest financial investment in AI from any US academic institution.
The new college will have 50 new teacher positions and many scholarships for postgraduate students. The college will open in September of 2019, initially starting in other buildings until 2022, where its new buildings will be ready.
Rafael Reif, president of MIT, said that the new approach to student education was necessary because of the way computers and Artificial Intelligence are "reshaping the world". With new data already causing major shifts in political opinions and machine learning beginning to affect everything from employment to criminal convictions, the new college will encourage students and researchers να σκεφτούν για τις πιθανές επιπτώσεις της πληροφορικής και της artificialof intelligence in the world.
Reif told The New York Times that the goal of the new college was to "educate the bilinguals of the future." It defines as bilingual scientists in fields such as biology, chemistry and political science who will also have expertise in the modern computational techniques applied to these courses of study.
Two-thirds of the college line has already been covered. For example, from the required amount of 1 billion dollars 350 million dollars come from Stephen A. Schwarzman, managing director and co-founder of Blackstone, a private equity firm.
MIT has made several major AI commitments in recent years. This year, the university announced one program called Quest for Intelligence is an initiative that aims to make breakthroughs in AI by bringing together neuroscience, cognitive science and computer researchers.
