Philanthropists Jason and Keely Krantz fund AI institute at BC

The university did not disclose how much Jason and Keely Krantz gave the school to found the institute, but called it “a transformative gift.”

“AI represents one of the most consequential technological transformations in human history,” Jason Krantz said in a statement.

Boston College trustee Jason Krantz ’95 and his wife Keely in their Boston home.Caitlin Cunningham

“Given Boston College’s commitment to formative education and the Jesuit principles of ethical discernment, BC, in our mind, is uniquely positioned to lead the conversation about the consequences of AI, what the technology means for humanity, and how it might be best leveraged in service to others,” he said.

Jason Krantz is founder and executive chairman of Definitive Healthcare, a software company in Framingham. He earned a bachelor’s degree at BC and went on to Harvard Business School. Krantz has founded half a dozen businesses over the years, including Breachway Capital. He also serves as a college trustee.

Keely Krantz also graduated from BC in 1995. She got her start in public relations, and is president and founder of the O’Dell Women’s Center in Springfield.

“We want to see values and ethics as foundational components in how the world approaches AI and AI education,” she said in the statement. “Additionally, we want BC students to use their formative education and discernment skills to help lead and improve the application of AI in the future.”

The institute “aspires to be different from anything we have seen in higher education and will help position Boston College to have a global impact on the future of AI.”

The Jesuit university’s provost and dean of faculties said the institute will be well suited to the campus in Chestnut Hill.

The institute “emerges from a shared sense of urgency that the world needs Boston College to bring the richness of its Jesuit, Catholic heritage and values into a lively engagement with the promise and perils of generative artificial intelligence,” David Quigley, Robert L. and Judith T. Winston provost and dean of faculties, said in the statement.

Quigley said he was appreciative of the Krantz’s generosity and confidence and is aiming to hire an executive director to lead the institute along with new faculty and staff, in the coming academic year.

“Jason and Keely Krantz believe that the University is particularly suited to provide ethical decision-making and humanistic leadership and thinking amid our age of accelerating technological change,” Quigley said. “I am grateful for their remarkable generosity and look forward to launching the institute that will make clear, across campus and well beyond, that AI’s ongoing revolutions require precisely those enduring strengths and resources which lie at the heart of BC’s mission-driven approach to formative education.”

Current faculty, new hires, and visiting scholars will forge together to achieve the institute’s primary goals, college officials said.

Elizabeth Shlala, associate dean and professor of the practice in BC’s core curriculum, said she is excited for the new institute.

“That’s the really exciting part for me — that there’s going to be a place where we can all come together and think about the ways that AI can be used for the good of humanity,” said Shlala.

The first two goals of the institute include convening global thought leaders at BC for AI-focused conferences and discussions, providing fellowships, internships, and experiential learning opportunities for students, and advancing curricular

The third is about advancing curricular innovation and integration at the college, enhancing AI-related programs and projects across campus, and awarding internal seed grants to fund emerging initiatives.

The new AI institute, in the planning for some time, also comes as Pope Leo XIV last month published his first major enycyclical, which calls for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than pure profits.

“In his recently published encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo reminds us that education has a decisive role to play in our time of rapid technological change,” said the Rev. Gregory Kalscheur, dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences.

The institute will aim to address the social and moral aspects of AI, and not just purely economics, he said.

“The Krantz Institute will enable Boston College to bring that spirit to the questions raised by artificial intelligence, placing emerging technological possibilities in conversation with the University’s commitment to promoting human dignity and serving the common good,” he said.

Asked to comment on the new BC institute, the Archdiocese of Boston said the plan appears to be in synch with the pope’s encyclical.

Pope Leo “clearly articulated a vision that acknowledges the benefits of technology and its many contributions to society, but is also a warning we must not dismiss by embracing the need to remain profoundly human,” the archdiocese said.

One BC grad student said the institute holds the promise of Jesuit values influencing AI research.

“I think it will be super positive,” said Lauren Evans, an alumnus who now attends BC Law, and works as an assistant to Shlala.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez. Thai Theodoro can be reached at thai.theorodo@globe.com.

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