The ‘godmother’ of AI is getting into the startup game
There’s an attention-grabbing new entrant in the competitive world of AI startups. Computer scientist and Stanford University professor Fei-Fei Li, known as the “godmother” of AI, is building a new company “that uses human-like processing of visual data to make AI capable of advanced reasoning,” according to a Reuters report.
The report says the startup’s investors include Andreessen Horowitz and Radical Ventures, which has also funded LLM model builder Cohere, self-driving car company Waabi, and AI search engine You.com, and which Li joined as a scientific partner last year. The new startup’s name, funding amount, and valuation have not yet been made public.
Li is co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and was formerly chief scientist of AI and machine learning at Google. But arguably her biggest claim to fame was the 2006 debut of ImageNet, a huge collection of labeled images—like “dogs” or “cars”—that became essential to teach computers to recognize objects in photos. Six years later, neural network research based on the ImageNet dataset, led by AI “godfather” Geoffrey Hinton, helped jump-start the deep learning revolution and led directly to today’s generative AI boom.
At a TED talk in Vancouver last month, Li reportedly said advances in “spatial intelligence,” or the ability to predict and derive insights from objects’ relationships to each other—like AI that can recognize 3D structures, or robots that can navigate their environment—will enable robots and computers to learn from the real world. While a representative from Radical Ventures told Fortune "we are not commenting at this time," it’s clear that Li’s reputation, as well as the intense industry interest in spatial computing (considered an essential stepping stone towards human-level AI) makes this startup investment enticing.
Of course, the new company will be up against many others in the race towards increasingly human-like intelligence, including the potential for artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Most experts say AGI remains a long-term goal that will still take several years—or even many decades—to achieve.
Still, it’s interesting that Li is jumping into the profit-seeking startup space, describing herself on her LinkedIn as a “newbie.” It’s in sharp contrast to her lobbying over the past couple of months of DC leaders to make sure that top AI academic researchers can keep up with industry giants.
Last month, the Washington Post reported that Li asked President Joe Biden to fund a “moonshot investment” in computing power and data sets to make sure the high cost of AI models does not compromise the independent study of the technology.
“The public sector is now significantly lagging in resources and talent compared to that of industry,” said Li in the Washington Post interview. “This will have profound consequences because industry is focused on developing technology that is profit-driven, whereas public-sector AI goals are focused on creating public goods.”
Considering her track record of giving birth to the deep learning foundations that underpin today’s generative AI models, it’s no surprise that Li’s new company is getting attention. It remains to be seen, however, whether she’ll be able to add to her already considerable success in the very difficult startup realm.
More news below.
Sharon Goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
