The following is a conversation with Stephen Schwartzman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone,

one of the world's leading investment firms with over $530 billion of assets under management.

He's one of the most successful business leaders in history.

I recommend his recent book called What It Takes that tells stories and lessons from his

personal journey.

Stephen is a philanthropist and one of the wealthiest people in the world, recently signing

the Giving Pledge, thereby committing to give the majority of his wealth to philanthropic

causes.

As an example, in 2018, he donated $350 million to MIT to help establish its new college

of computing, the mission of which promotes interdisciplinary, big, bold research and

artificial intelligence.

For those of you who know me, know that MIT is near and dear to my heart, and always

will be.

It was and is a place where I believe big, bold, revolutionary ideas have a home, and

that is what is needed in artificial intelligence research in the coming decades.

Yes, there's institutional challenges, but also there's power in the passion of individual

researchers, from undergrad to PhD, from young scientists to senior faculty.

I believe the dream to build intelligence systems learns brighter than ever in the halls

of MIT.

This conversation was recorded recently, but before the outbreak of the pandemic, for

everyone feeling the burden of this crisis, I'm sending love to your way.

Stay strong, we're in this together.

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