Stanford AI professor Fei-Fei Li says we need more human-centered technology. Still, she had to convince herself to share her own story

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Business Insider president Barbara Peng was named CEO of the publication, model and investor Karlie Kloss acquired i-D Magazine, and Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li shared her personal story to advance her mission of building human-centered technology. Have a good Wednesday!

- A human story. Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li is an AI technologist known for her work to make the fast-moving technology more human, a crusade she launched via a widely-read 2018 New York Times op-ed. When she started to write a book, she focused on that work—until she shared a draft with her friend and fellow co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute.

He told her, "There are many AI technologists out there who can write a popular science book," Li recalls. "But for all the young people, young women, people of diverse backgrounds, and immigrants out there—there isn't much of a voice they identify with."

Li isn't used to putting the spotlight on herself, but she reluctantly rewrote her book to include her personal story. Her memoir/technology book, The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI, was released last week. "I still feel uncomfortable," she says. "But I see that as my responsibility."

In the book, Li describes her journey falling in love with physics alongside her experience immigrating from Chengdu, China to the U.S. at age 15 and learning English from scratch. She shares memories like overhearing a teacher tell male students that it was unacceptable they were falling behind girls in the class because they were "biologically smarter." She shares her personal and family story alongside the 20th-century history of AI and the technology that led to it.

It's fitting that such a human story was written by a technologist who argues that we need human-centered technology. Early on, Li rang alarm bells about the potential societal consequences of artificial intelligence, though she's not among the more radical camp now warning of AI's existential threat. "I respect that discussion because I think, intellectually, it's a worthy discussion to have," she says. "But I'm much more concerned about the potential catastrophic social risks, like disinformation, impact on democracy, job disruption, workforce disruption, bias, and privacy infringement."

Li hopes that her book will be read by the under-served audience her colleague urged her to write it for—but also by business leaders and other experts in the AI space.

"The more we create this incredible technology, the more we participate in governing it and harnessing it," she says. "So the future is exciting, but it's for us to define."

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

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