Professor Fei-Fei Li, recognized as the “godmother” of artificial intelligence (AI), expressed pride in her distinction as the only woman among seven AI pioneers receiving the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. The King will present the award during a ceremony at St James’s Palace today. The other honorees include Professors Yoshua Bengio, John Hopfield, and Fei-Fei Li, Dr. Bill Dally, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, and Dr. Yann LeCun of Meta. They are being acknowledged for their significant contributions to modern machine learning, a foundational element for advancements in AI.
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, Prof. Bengio, and Dr. LeCun are often referred to as the “Godfathers of AI” following their joint receipt of the Turing Award in 2018. In contrast, Prof. Li has noted her reluctance to embrace the title of “godmother” initially but recognized its potential to highlight women’s contributions in science and technology. She stated that accepting the title could inspire young women in the field.
Prof. Li, who emigrated from China to the U.S. as a teenager, currently serves as a co-director at Stanford’s Computer Science Department and is the co-founder and CEO of World Labs. She is particularly noted for her work on ImageNet, a project that produced large-scale image recognition datasets critical to the growth of AI. Prof. Li believes the next significant milestone in AI will be its ability to interact autonomously with the environment, a function she considers essential for advancing capabilities in various domains.
This presentation marks the first occasion where all seven laureates will convene in person. The three “godfathers” have displayed divergent views regarding the potential risks of AI, with Dr. Hinton voicing apprehension over possible existential threats, while Prof. LeCun has dismissed such warnings as exaggerated. Prof. Li advocates for a pragmatic, science-based discourse on AI safety, emphasizing the value of healthy debate and factual communication about AI developments and risks. The Queen Elizabeth Prize is awarded annually to engineers for transformative innovations benefiting humanity.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yp2vj92e9o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss