a16z Podcast

The Frontier of Spatial Intelligence with Fei-Fei Li

532 snips
Nov 13, 2025
Guest
Justin Johnson
Guest
Fei-Fei Li
Fei-Fei Li, a computer scientist known for her groundbreaking work in AI and co-founder of World Labs, joins forces with Justin Johnson, an expert in computer vision and generative models. They explore the evolution of AI from its early challenges to the current boom in spatial intelligence. The duo introduces Marble, their innovative tool that simplifies 3D scene generation from text prompts. They dive into defining spatial intelligence, the significance of 3D representations, and the future of blending real and virtual worlds in technology.
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INSIGHT

AI's New Cambrian Explosion

  • The field moved from winters to a Cambrian explosion as modalities (text, pixels, audio, video) converge.
  • Fei-Fei argues visual spatial intelligence is as fundamental as language for intelligent agents.
ANECDOTE

A PhD Sparked By The 'Cat Paper'

  • Justin discovered deep learning around 2011–2012 after seeing the "cat paper" and chose grad school to pursue it.
  • He describes daily paper-reading then as like unwrapping presents on Christmas.
INSIGHT

Data-Driven Breakthroughs Over Fancy Models

  • Fei-Fei emphasizes data scale as a core driver, citing ImageNet as a deliberate bet on large labeled datasets.
  • Letting data drive models unlocked generalization beyond complex handcrafted models.
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