The University of Chicago announced a $50 million gift from trustee Rika Mansueto and her husband Joe Mansueto to build a cohort of faculty with AI expertise. The funding supports the new Mansueto Faculty of Mind and Machine Challenge, which plans to recruit and support 20 scholars across arts and social sciences, medicine, business, and law. The gift is intended to seed an interdisciplinary research and education effort, aiming to raise nearly $200 million while strengthening AI-related investments across the university. UChicago said the initiative will help faculty and students learn how to think with, without, and about machines. President Paul Alivisatos highlighted the university’s “intellectual freedom and dialogue across disciplines,” framing the initiative as part of a broader mission to ground AI scholarship in human judgment, responsibility, and purpose. For higher education leaders, the Mansuetos’ targeted AI hiring program signals continued philanthropic momentum toward faculty capacity—rather than only student-facing AI tools—at research universities.