
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI

I wrote that the true impact of AI on the world would be largely determined by the motivation that guided the development of the technology—a disturbing thought in an era of expanding facial recognition and targeted advertising. But if we were to broaden our vision for AI to explicitly include a positive impact on humans and communities—if our defi
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One after another, the greatest figures in physics seemed to develop an unexpected late-career interest in the mystery of life itself, even taking abrupt shifts toward the formal study of biology.
Fei-Fei Li • The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
It must have been obvious even from a distance that the traditional hierarchy of parent and child was absent between us, as he carried himself more like a peer than a father, unburdened by paternal neuroses. And although I could tell he was happy to share the experiences of our outings with me, the sheer intensity of his focus—as joyful as it was m
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Admittedly, my mother and her two sisters were my grandparents’ only children—three uniformly headstrong daughters and not a son in sight—so opportunities for chauvinism were limited long before I showed up. But their affection endured with the birth of my cousin—a boy, at last—and I never second-guessed it. It was only as I grew up that I realized
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Among science’s greatest virtues, however, is its ability to recast a lesson in humility as a moment of possibility.
Fei-Fei Li • The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
I wondered if it was really physics per se that so inspired me, or simply the spirit that motivated physics—the courage that spurred some of history’s brightest minds to ask such brazen questions about our world. I wanted desperately to follow in their footsteps—to help reveal some unknown truth—but I was no longer certain what kind of truth it’d b
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The complexity of the human brain dwarfs that of anything else in the known universe, but it’s almost belied by the sheer elegance of its construction.
Fei-Fei Li • The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
she was driven from childhood not just to learn but to put that knowledge to principled use. To be a part of the world, to explore its reaches, and to leave a mark on
Fei-Fei Li • The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
“You’ve spent years trying to get here, Fei-Fei. You’ve got the degree, you’ve got the job, and it sounds like you’ve got some inspiration. And hey, your husband is six hundred miles away, so you’ll definitely have the time.”