From the family laundry to a huge exit: Meet the 'Godmother of AI'

Prof. Fei-Fei Li, a pioneer in computer vision and the mind behind ImageNet, is selling her company World Labs to AMD for approximately $8.2 billion. Her story begins with working in a family laundry in New Jersey, through Princeton and Caltech, to becoming one of the most influential figures in the world of artificial intelligence.

Prof. Fei-Fei Li, a pioneer in computer vision and the mind behind ImageNet, is selling her company World Labs to AMD for approximately $8.2 billion. Her story begins with working in a family laundry in New Jersey, through Princeton and Caltech, to becoming one of the most influential figures in the world of artificial intelligence. World Labs develops models that create and reconstruct 3D environments from text, images, and video. Its first product, Marble, allows users to create navigable worlds; the Atlas model, introduced this month, is designed to predict how a scene would look from a different camera angle. AMD participated in a funding round for World Labs, and the two companies collaborated on adapting the models for AMD's graphics processors. Li explained the connection as a need to get closer to hardware: "Without a focused effort in hardware, AI is limited in efficiency and scalability." Upon completion of the deal, Li will join AMD as a senior vice president and chief scientist, reporting to CEO Lisa Su.

From the family laundry to a huge exit: Meet the 'Godmother of AI'