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‘AI Godmother’ Fei-Fei Li Secures $230 Million For an AI Startup!

  • Dave Andre
    Dave Andre
    Dave Andre
    Editor
    Digital marketing enthusiast by day, nature wanderer by dusk. Dave Andre blends two decades of AI and SaaS expertise into impactful strategies for SMEs. His weekends? Lost in books on tech trends and rejuvenating on scenic trails.
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    Dave Andre
    Dave Andre
    Dave Andre
    Editor
    Digital marketing enthusiast by day, nature wanderer by dusk. Dave Andre blends two decades of AI and SaaS expertise into impactful strategies for SMEs. His weekends? Lost in books on tech trends and rejuvenating on scenic trails.
    See Full Bio >
    Editor
  • September 13, 2024
    Updated
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Key Takeaways:

  • Fei-Fei Li, a leading figure in AI research known as the “godmother of AI,” has raised $230 million to start her new company, World Labs, which aims to develop AI that can understand the three-dimensional physical world.
  • World Labs, co-founded by Li and three other experts, is focused on “spatial intelligence,” which could have important applications in fields like augmented reality, virtual reality, and robotics.
  • The startup has attracted funding from major investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Radical Ventures, and tech companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.
  • Despite the massive investment, World Labs is still in its early stages, with a planned product launch in 2025, and a small team of 20 employees working on developing its core AI models.

Fei-Fei Li, a well-known artificial intelligence researcher and a professor at Stanford University, has successfully raised $230 million for her new venture, World Labs, which she co-founded with three colleagues.

The company, which launched on September 13, 2024, aims to create advanced AI technologies that understand and interact with the three-dimensional physical world.


The initial funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, and Radical Ventures, with additional investments from companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.

World Labs is focused on “spatial intelligence,” teaching AI systems to understand the 3D world in ways similar to human perception.


Li says current generative AI models can produce impressive text and images but struggle to reason about the 3D world effectively.

“The images and videos that you have seen so far coming out of generative AI models do not give you enough of the whole sense of how a 3D world is built,” Li explained in an interview, emphasizing that a deeper understanding of the world is key to improving AI systems.

This could help avoid mistakes, such as generating “hallucinations” like hands with the wrong number of fingers.

Based in San Francisco, the startup employs 20 people and plans to train its models using both synthetic and real-world data.


These models, which the company calls “large world models” or LWMs, will use a transformer-based architecture similar to the technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

However, Li suggested that their models would also include other techniques, indicating a broader approach to developing AI.

Li, who is taking a leave of absence from her role as co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute, will continue some of her academic work while building the startup.


She is known as the “godmother of AI,” a title reflecting her impact on the field, similar to the three “godfathers” who won the 2018 Turing Award for their contributions to AI.

Her previous work, particularly with ImageNet—a large-scale image dataset that helped advance computer vision—has been foundational for many of today’s AI technologies.

The other founders of World Labs include computer vision experts Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, and Ben Mildenhall, who bring substantial experience from their backgrounds in AI and graphics.


The company’s goal is to create software that allows users to simulate 3D spaces where they can control different elements like physics, making it useful for a variety of professionals, such as artists, designers, and engineers.


While the company has not disclosed its valuation, it has generated massive interest from the tech community due to its innovative focus and experienced team.


Li highlighted the potential for spatial intelligence models in areas like augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and robotics, suggesting that this technology could help move AI to a new level by providing a better understanding of both real and imagined environments.

This is not Li’s first experience with entrepreneurship. In her memoirs, she describes how, as a Princeton University student, she borrowed money to buy a dry cleaning business for her parents, working there on weekends to support them.


Her journey in AI includes impressive roles, such as chief scientist of AI at Google Cloud from 2017 to 2018 and serving on Twitter’s board of directors. She has also provided advice to policymakers, including at the White House.

With a planned product launch in 2025, the company faces both challenges and opportunities as it aims to advance the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

For more news and trends, visit AI News on our website.

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Dave Andre

Editor

Digital marketing enthusiast by day, nature wanderer by dusk. Dave Andre blends two decades of AI and SaaS expertise into impactful strategies for SMEs. His weekends? Lost in books on tech trends and rejuvenating on scenic trails.

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