Language is just one 'keyhole' into intelligence. True artificial general intelligence (AGI) requires 'world modeling'—a spatial intelligence that understands geometry, physics, and actions. This capability to represent and interact with the state of the world is the next critical phase of AI development beyond current language models.
Dr. Li defines fearlessness as the freedom from constraints that inhibit creativity, courage, and execution. She prioritizes this trait in hiring, encouraging teams to tackle uncertain, contrarian, and difficult challenges. The most creative work happens when solving problems without a clear path, which is where breakthroughs are made.
Drawing a parallel to the Cambrian Explosion, where vision evolved alongside nervous systems, Dr. Li argues that perception's primary purpose is to enable action and interaction. This principle suggests that for AI to advance, particularly in robotics, computer vision must be developed as the foundation for embodied intelligence, not just for classification.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li asserts that trust in the AI age remains a fundamentally human responsibility that operates on individual, community, and societal levels. It's not a technical feature to be coded but a social norm to be established. Entrepreneurs must build products and companies where human agency is the source of trust from day one.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li cites the deduction of DNA's double-helix structure as a prime example of a cognitive leap that required deep spatial and geometric reasoning—a feat impossible with language alone. This illustrates that future AI systems will need world-modeling capabilities to achieve similar breakthroughs and augment human scientific discovery.
Despite rapid software advances like deep learning, the deployment of self-driving cars was a 20-year process because it had to integrate with the mature automotive industry's supply chains, infrastructure, and business models. This serves as a reminder that AI's real-world impact is often constrained by the readiness of the sectors it aims to disrupt.