How ImageNet Sparked Modern AI

Fei-Fei recounts creating ImageNet, its scale, and how data plus neural nets and GPUs enabled breakthroughs like AlexNet.

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Episode notes

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is known as the “godmother of AI.” She’s been at the center of AI’s biggest breakthroughs for over two decades. She spearheaded ImageNet, the dataset that sparked the deep-learning revolution we’re living right now, served as Google Cloud’s Chief AI Scientist, directed Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, and co-founded Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. In this conversation, Fei-Fei shares the rarely told history of how we got here—including the wild fact that just nine years ago, calling yourself an AI company was basically a death sentence.

We discuss:

1. How ImageNet helped spark the AI explosion we’re living through

2. Why world models and spatial intelligence represent the next frontier in AI, beyond large language models

3. Why Fei-Fei believes AI won’t replace humans but will require us to take responsibility for ourselves

4. The surprising applications of Marble, from movie production to psychological research

5. Why robotics faces unique challenges compared with language models and what’s needed to overcome them

6. How to participate in AI regardless of your role

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