Fei-Fei Li
Co-founder & Professor · World Labs / Stanford
Stanford professor, creator of ImageNet, and co-founder of World Labs, focused on spatial intelligence.
Who Is Fei-Fei Li
Fei-Fei Li is a computer scientist, professor at Stanford University, and co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). Often called the “godmother of AI,” she has spent her career at the intersection of computer vision, cognitive science, and AI policy.
What She Built
Li’s most consequential contribution is ImageNet — a dataset of millions of labeled images released in 2009. By giving researchers a large, standardized benchmark, ImageNet created the conditions for the deep learning breakthrough of 2012. She also served as Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud and co-founded the nonprofit AI4ALL.
Why She Matters
In 2024 Li co-founded World Labs, a startup pursuing “spatial intelligence” — AI that understands and generates 3D worlds rather than flat text and images. She is also a leading advocate for human-centered AI, arguing that the technology should be designed to augment human capability and dignity, and she advises governments on AI policy.