charity work Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, are co-founders and say they are changing their focus.
This is good news for some, but not so good news for others.
The couple said in a blog post Thursday. Going forward, the company plans to prioritize philanthropy with Biohub, a group of biological research institutes it has supported since 2016.
On the same day, Biohub stated: Partner with Evolution Scale Using AI to “drastically accelerate scientific progress toward understanding and addressing human disease.”
“When we started our business, our goal was to help scientists treat or prevent every disease this century,” Zuckerberg said in a press release. “We now believe that advances in AI may make this possible sooner. Accelerating science is the most positive impact we think we can make, which is why we are fully committed to AI-powered biology in our next chapter.”
Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Chan have pledged to give away half of their wealth, which could be well over $200 billion. When the couple first launched the foundation in 2015, they He said he would focus not only on treating diseases, but also on improving education and public policy.
Recently, like Meta itself, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has pivoted from its previous goals to focus on AI.
In 2023, the company laid off dozens of employees in its education sector, closed its education policy grants portfolio, and shifted its focus away from previously developed educational tools. Last year, Chan said CZI would prioritize funding for science.
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“While CZI remains committed to education and community engagement, we recognize that our greatest investments and bets are in science, and we will continue to do so,” Chan said in a 2024 email to staff.
Under its latest initiative, Biohub said it is tackling four scientific challenges, including “using AI to reprogram the immune system for early detection, prevention and treatment of disease.”
To achieve this, Biohub said it will expand its computing power to 10,000 GPUs by 2028.
“We believe that advances in these types of systems may ultimately allow us to achieve decades of discoveries in months,” Biohub said in a press release. “We believe that this coming together will lead to cutting-edge medical care.”
