Fei-Fei Li Started an AI Revolution By Seeing Like an Algorithm

Early in the pandemic, an agent--literary, not software--suggested Fei-Fei Li write a book. She has made an indelible mark on the field of artificial intelligence by heading a project started in 2006 called ImageNet. It classified millions of digital images to form what became a seminal training ground for the AI systems that rock our world today. Li is currently the founding codirector of Stanford's Institute of Human-Centered AI (HAI), whose very name is a plea for cooperation, if not coevolution, between people and intelligent machines. Accepting the agent's challenge, Li spent the lockdown year churning out a draft.