USC Receives $200M Donation to Recruit AI Faculty

The University of Southern California (USC) has received a $200M donation from Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary. The gift will rename USC's School of Advanced Computing to the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence. It will also fund a campuswide effort to make USC a national center for AI scholarship, including in film and the arts. USC President Beong-Soo Kim said the donation comes at a significant time as AI is rapidly expanding into various aspects of society. The university aims to apply AI across fields where it already has strengths, including medicine, cybersecurity, national security, business, and entertainment. The gift will help USC recruit top AI talent, with areas of focus including arts, social sciences, engineering, computing, and health. Kim highlighted USC's research in regenerative medicine, neuroimaging, and Alzheimer's disease as areas where AI is making a significant impact. Stevens, a USC alumnus and trustee, has a net worth of over $11 billion, largely due to his stake in Nvidia.