Fei-Fei Li’s record success!

Distinguished computer scientist and “Godmother of AI”, Fei-Fei Li, launched an AI start-up, called World Labs, in April this year, and it’s already worth over $1B.

Who is Fei-Fei Li?

Li became known in the industry for her contributions to computer vision (which focuses on enabling machines to understand and interpret visual data) after she created ImageNet, a huge image dataset that drove huge advances in computer visioning.

She previously led the AI division at Google Cloud and currently advises the White House task force on AI, while co-directing the Human-Centered AI Institute at Stanford University.

What is World Labs?

In April, while on partial leave from Stanford University, Li launched World Labs to develop a model that’s capable of understanding and processing visual data like humans can, to advance AI’s reasoning capabilities.

The model they’re developing will have the ability to understand the dimensions of objects, where they are, and what they’re doing, which will enable machines, such as robots, to move more efficiently around physical spaces, which could transform industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and urban planning.

“We want more than AI that can see and talk. We want AI that can do." – Fei-Fei Li

How has Workd Labs reached $1B in value in just 4 months?

Li managed to secure funding for World Labs, over two rounds, most recently securing $100M in a round led by high-profile investors; Andreessen Horowitz and AI fund Radical Ventures. This only highlights the trend among VCs for backing ambitious AI start-ups, no doubt after seeing the rapid success of OpenAI, which got a valuation of over $80B after just 10 months.