While the phrase “godfather of AI” gets thrown around a lot, there’s only one undisputed “godmother of AI,” Dr. Fei-Fei Li.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li is one of the most well-known AI researchers in the world, having gone from constructing ImageNet, which has helped train countless computer vision systems and neural networks to identify objects, to building a spatial intelligence startup worth $1 billion in just a matter of months.
Li has been ahead of the curve in computer vision, building critical infrastructure that other researchers have used to enhance the ability of models to identify objects in images and real-world environments.
Professional Life & Current Roles
Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a Chinese-American computer scientist who is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. Li also served as the Director of Stanford’s AI Lab from 2013 to 2018.
According to Forbes, Dr. Fei-Fei Li has written over 100 scientific articles throughout her academic career and landed a spot on lists, including The World’s Top 50 Women in Tech (2018) and America’s Top 50 Women in Tech (2018). Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s net worth is undisclosed.
Li has also had a number of roles in the private sector, acting as vice president at Google from January 2017 to September 2018, as well as serving as the chief scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud. She has also served as a board advisor to leading tech companies like Twitter.
Li is also the founder of AI4ALL, a non-profit organization that aims to advocate for increasing inclusion and diversity in AI research, development, and policy.
Finally, Li has been a trusted advisor to the U.S. government, serving as a special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, acting as a member of the California Future of Work Commission for the Governor of California, and a member of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Task Force.
Her latest venture, World Labs, was launched in 2024.
