An American billionaire has given Oxford University PS150 million ($A274 million) for a new institute that will explore the ethics of artificial intelligence.
The gift has been made by Stephen A Schwarzman, the chief executive and co-founder of US investment and private equity firm Blackstone.
A centre named after the philanthropist will house all of the university's humanities subjects for the first time and is expected to open in 2024.
It will also be home to Oxford University's new Institute for Ethics in AI which will explore the questions affecting the workplace and society.
Mr Schwarzman, who is not an Oxford graduate, said he is proud to partner with the university to create the centre, which will also include performing arts and exhibition venues.
He told the BBC's Today program: "AI is going to be the fourth revolution, and it is going to impact jobs, excellence, efficiency and it is a force for amazing good and also a potential force for not good.
"And what is important about it isn't just what it can do, but making sure it is introduced in a way unlike the internet.
"The internet was invented by a bunch of computer scientists and they threw it out there because they thought it was cool.
"And parts of it were cool - interconnectedness, globally the ability to communicate, it is pretty amazing. What they forgot were all the negatives, this inability to control cyber bullying, lack of freedom of speech - all kinds of negative things."
He said that ethics and AI is "one of the major issues of our age", adding: "Because AI is going to come, it is really unstoppable, it is not just AI it is robotics and all kinds of other computer science innovations."
The university said the 72-year-old's multimillion-pound donation marks its largest single gift since the Renaissance.
In October last year he announced a foundational $US350 million ($A510 million) gift to establish the Schwarzman College of Computing at MIT in the US, and in 2007 he also donated $US100 million ($A145 million) to the New York Public Library, whose board he serves.
Oxford's vice chancellor Louise Richardson said the generous donation to the university "marks a significant endorsement of the value of the humanities in the 21st century".
Mr Schwarzman, who did not endorse Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign, now advises the American president.
