{"slug": "ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy", "title": "Ross Douthat on what AI money should learn from the golden age of philanthropy", "summary": "Ross Douthat argues that the current generation of tech billionaires, particularly those funding artificial intelligence, should learn from the golden age of philanthropy by investing in lasting physical beauty and infrastructure rather than fleeting political causes. He contrasts the enduring monuments built by early 20th-century philanthropists—such as museums, concert halls, and university campuses—with the lack of comparable architectural legacies from modern donors like Bill Gates. Douthat warns that without a shift toward tangible, aesthetic contributions, AI money risks repeating the failures of recent philanthropy.", "body_md": "# Ross Douthat on what AI money should learn from the golden age of philanthropy\n\nThis was a great failure of the most recent philanthropic era. At its best, the infrastructure established by figures like Gates delivered effective efforts to reduce poverty and fight disease; at its worst, it threw money after fashionable political causes and education fads. But there was no real legacy when it came to physical infrastructure — no great beautification campaigns, no beloved architectural landmarks, no equivalent of the Gilded Age’s expansions of museums and libraries and concert halls, and few personal expressions of extravagance (like the Newport mansions or Hearst Castle) for future tourists to admire.\n\nAt the beginning of the 20th century, philanthropic dollars had already helped build the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall, the campuses of Vanderbilt, Stanford and the University of Chicago, a network of urban parks, various impressive churches and an array of private homes that would themselves become public spaces within a few generations. Tastes vary, but I do not think that the monuments raised by today’s superrich are in any way comparable.\n\nHere is [the full NYT piece](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/opinion/artificial-intelligence-philanthropy-beauty.html?campaign_id=280&emc=edit_rd_20260523&instance_id=176093&nl=ross-douthat®i_id=35292657&segment_id=220360&user_id=268e3cc9cd4f93e81125ff99bc15edb0).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy", "canonical_source": "https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/05/ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy", "published_at": "2026-05-23 11:35:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-25 00:24:57.341325+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Ross Douthat", "Gates", "Metropolitan Museum of Art", "Carnegie Hall", "Vanderbilt", "Stanford", "University of Chicago", "New York Times"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ross-douthat-on-what-ai-money-should-learn-from-the-golden-age-of-philanthropy.jsonld"}}