The university did not disclose how much Jason and Keely Krantz gave the school to found the institute, but called it “a transformative gift.”
“AI represents one of the most consequential technological transformations in human history,” Jason Krantz said in a statement.
“Given Boston College’s commitment to formative education and the Jesuit principles of ethical discernment, BC, in our mind, is uniquely positioned to lead the conversation about the consequences of AI, what the technology means for humanity, and how it might be best leveraged in service to others,” he said.
Jason Krantz is founder and executive chairman of Definitive Healthcare, a software company in Framingham. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Boston College and went on to Harvard Business School. Krantz has founded half a dozen businesses over the years, including Breachway Capital. He also serves as a college trustee.
Keely Krantz also graduated from BC in 1995. She got her start in public relations, and is president and founder of the O’Dell Women’s Center in Springfield.
“We want to see values and ethics as foundational components in how the world approaches AI and AI education,” she said in the statement. “Additionally, we want BC students to use their formative education and discernment skills to help lead and improve the application of AI in the future.”
The Jesuit university’s provost and dean of faculties said the institute will be well suited to the campus in Chestnut Hill.
The institute “emerges from a shared sense of urgency that the world needs Boston College to bring the richness of its Jesuit, Catholic heritage and values into a lively engagement with the promise and perils of generative artificial intelligence,” David Quigley, Robert L. and Judith T. Winston provost and dean of faculties, said in the statement.
Quigley said he was appreciative of the Krantz’s generosity and confidence and is aiming to hire an executive director to lead the institute along with new faculty and staff, in the coming academic year
“Jason and Keely Krantz believe that the University is particularly suited to provide ethical decision-making and humanistic leadership and thinking amid our age of accelerating technological change,” Quigley said. “I am grateful for their remarkable generosity and look forward to launching the institute that will make clear, across campus and well beyond, that AI’s ongoing revolutions require precisely those enduring strengths and resources which lie at the heart of BC’s mission-driven approach to formative education.”
Current faculty, new hires, and visiting scholars will forge together to achieve the institute’s three primary goals, college officials said.
The first two goals include convening global thought leaders at Boston College for AI-focused conferences and discussions, providing fellowships, internships, and experiential learning opportunities for students, and advancing curricular
The third is about advancing curricular innovation and integration at the college, enhancing AI-related programs and projects across campus, and awarding internal seed grants to fund emerging initiatives.
The Rev. Gregory Kalscheur, dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, noted that Pope Leo recently addressed the growing concerns surrounding AI.
“In his recently published encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo reminds us that education has a decisive role to play in our time of rapid technological change,” Kalscheur said.
“The Krantz Institute will enable Boston College to bring that spirit to the questions raised by artificial intelligence, placing emerging technological possibilities in conversation with the University’s commitment to promoting human dignity and serving the common good,” he said.
Keely Krantz said, “The Krantz Institute aspires to be different from anything we have seen in higher education and will help position Boston College to have a global impact on the future of AI.”
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.
