Meta (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, announced they will be shifting the focus of their philanthropic efforts to AI in a blog post last week.
"Ten years ago, we started the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help cure diseases, improve education, support our local community, and more," the couple wrote in the post. "We're proud of all this work, and especially what we believe has been our greatest impact: accelerating science and developing the Biohub network."
"Accelerating science is the most positive impact we think we can make," they continued. "So we're going all in on AI-powered biology for our next chapter. Going forward, Biohub will be our primary philanthropic effort and where we'll dedicate the vast majority of our resources."
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The Biohub story
Biohub is a biomedical research organization that was founded by the pair in 2016. It is "leading the first large-scale scientific initiative combining frontier AI with frontier biology," according to its website.
In practice, this means that its staff is focused on building virtual, AI-based models of human cells that can be used to help understand how inflammation and disease work. Scientists can apply this understanding to better detect, prevent, and treat disease, with the ultimate goal of solving all illnesses.
"If we can create new tools that help scientists work faster, think in new ways, and see the world differently, it changes how we approach solving problems and what we believe is possible," Chan said about Biohub's mission on the initiative's website.
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The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's controversies
The couple launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2015 with the wide-ranging goal of curing diseases, improving education, and supporting local communities. They pledged to donate 99% of their Facebook shares within their lifetimes to further the foundation's mission.
However, earlier this year, the foundation came under fire for curtailing some of its other work. In an email sent to staff in February, Zuckerberg and Chan informed employees they'd be cutting back on social advocacy work and eliminating DEI programming.
"As we've focused on science, we've wound down our social advocacy funding," they wrote. "This includes our previous work on immigration reform, as well as our racial equity grantmaking."
"In addition, given the shifting regulatory and legal landscape, we will no longer have a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility team at CZI," they continued.
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Adriana Ayala, executive director of the Chicana Latina Foundation, which was impacted by the Initiative's decision, told The San Francisco Standard the decision was "devastating."
"We're a community-based organization, we're small, and it's disappointing — devastating," she told the Standard. "We're tightening the belt because of all the unknowns of what's to come."
Looking ahead
In the blog post announcing the shift in focus, Zuckerberg and Chan said that, in addition to their focus on Biohub, they would be continuing their other philanthropic efforts.
"We are very excited about the decade ahead," they wrote. "There will be many challenges, but we believe that achieving some of humanity's long-term dreams will also come within reach."
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