Fei-Fei Li on spatial intelligence and large world models

Why it matters

The 'Godmother of AI' Fei-Fei Li — Stanford professor, World Labs CEO, ImageNet creator — focuses on her new direction: spatial intelligence. Teaching AI not just to read text but to see the world, understand 3D space, and predict physical interactions. From 'making AI see' to 'making AI act', she explains the turning point.

Key takeaways

• Language intelligence is only half of AI — spatial intelligence is the other half: understanding the 3D world is the necessary path to AGI.
• Large World Models (LWM) don't just generate 3D scenes — they understand physical laws: gravity, occlusion, motion.
• From 'seeing' to 'doing': spatial intelligence = perception + reasoning + action — benefiting robotics, AR, and design.
• ImageNet taught AI to recognize objects; World Labs is teaching AI to understand the world.
• Academic research and productization need to run in parallel: Stanford taught her that 'curiosity-driven research + real-world product feedback' is the best loop.