Fei-Fei Li, a leading figure in artificial intelligence, has successfully raised $230 million for World Labs, a startup she co-founded to advance AI technology that comprehends the three-dimensional physical world. This substantial funding round, announced on Friday, was spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, and Radical Ventures, with additional backing from AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, and Nvidia's NVentures.
World Labs focuses on developing "spatial intelligence" models that enhance AI's ability to reason about how 3D environments function. Unlike current generative AI models that excel at creating text and images, World Labs aims to address the gaps in understanding and constructing 3D spaces, which could significantly impact fields such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and robotics.
Fei-Fei Li, recognized as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023, previously led AI efforts at Google Cloud and has served on Twitter's board of directors. Known as the "godmother of AI," Li's contributions include the development of ImageNet, a dataset that revolutionized computer vision by enabling reliable object recognition.
World Labs, headquartered in San Francisco and staffed by 20 employees, will develop large world models (LWMs) using a blend of synthetic and real-world data. These models will utilize transformer-based architectures similar to those in OpenAI's ChatGPT, although Li hints that additional elements will be integrated to enhance their capabilities.
Li, who continues her work at Stanford University's Human-Centered AI Institute, views spatial intelligence as crucial for overcoming limitations in current AI systems, such as generating "hallucinations" where generated content does not accurately reflect the physical world. By improving AI's understanding of 3D structures, World Labs aims to unlock broader reasoning capabilities and advance the field of AI.
This venture marks Li’s second foray into entrepreneurship. As a Princeton student, she financed a dry cleaning business for her parents, a testament to her longstanding commitment to innovation and problem-solving.
