Fei-Fei Li, 'Godmother of AI' started as a dry cleaner
What's the story
Fei-Fei Li, Stanford professor and dubbed the "Godmother of AI," has seen her start-up World Labs surpass a $1 billion valuation. The company is recognized for pioneering "world models", enabling artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand and navigate real-world environments. This marks a significant step forward in developing smarter AI technologies with practical benefits for people.
Early life
From humble beginnings to AI pioneer
Li's journey in the world of AI began with her groundbreaking work on ImageNet, a project that revolutionized how computers perceive images. Now, at World Labs, she's breaking new ground again with a tool that creates 3D environments from different types of media. This goes beyond traditional language models and could open up new possibilities in creativity, robotics, and science.
Personal story
Li's immigrant journey and resilience in science
Li immigrated to the US from China at 15 and helped her parents run a dry-cleaning business in Parsippany, New Jersey. She worked there for seven years while studying at Princeton University and remotely during the beginning of her Ph.D. at Caltech. "As a scientist, you have to be resilient because science is a non-linear journey," she said, emphasizing how her immigrant experience shaped her career in AI.
Project details
World Labs's ambitious AI projects under Li's leadership
Under Li's leadership, World Labs is working on world models to enhance AI capabilities. These models leverage spatial intelligence, which Li describes as "the ability for AI to understand, perceive, reason and interact with the world." She believes visual information is a key foundation for real-world action in AI development.