The University of Virginia said Monday it has established a new institute for the ethical use of AI in business at its Darden School in Charlottesville.
The institute is enabled by more than $100 million in giving from Dave and Kathy LaCross. As such, it will be called the LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business.
The university said the institute will boost its research, teaching and engagement in AI across schools, institutes and research centers. It extends and expands the work of several other AI initiatives at Darden and UVa.’s data science school.
“Our students are hungry for AI relevant skills and knowledge and the LaCross AI Institute can explore the business opportunities of AI across sectors and also define what ethical leadership means in the age of artificial intelligence,” Scott Beardsley, dean of the Darden, said in a statement. “Our faculty have worked for decades to infuse ethics into everything we teach and value, and this positions Darden perfectly to set a standard and example for how ethics must be embedded into the development and integration of AI in business, while also exploring the business of AI itself.”
Beardsley will chair the AI institute’s advisory council, comprised of UVa. school leaders. Darden Professors Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Raj Venkatesan will serve as academic directors of the AI institute. UVa. said the pair already have ties to AI use in education and business settings.
Dave and Kathy LaCross announced a $101 million gift to Darden in October 2023, indicating $50 million to establish a Darden-led AI institute that would work with UVa. schools and initiatives.
Dave LaCross is a 1978 graduate of Darden, while Kathy LaCross received her undergraduate degree from UVa. in 1976. David was the founder of Berkeley, California-based fintech Risk Management Technologies, which he sold in 1997 to the company now known as FICO.