According to market-fixated tech pundits and professional skeptics, the artificial intelligence bubble has popped, and winter's back. In fact, Li--who earned the sobriquet the "godmother of AI"--is betting on the contrary. She's on a part-time leave from Stanford University to cofound a company called World Labs. While current generative AI is language-based, she sees a frontier where systems construct complete worlds with the physics, logic, and rich detail of our physical reality. It's an ambitious goal, and despite the dreary nabobs who say progress in AI has hit a grim plateau, World Labs is on the funding fast track.