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Stanford computer scientist Fei-Fei Li, considered the “Godmother of AI,” has raised $230 million for her new startup, World Labs. Backers include Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Radical Ventures, with the expectation that a product will be on its way in 2025. After two funding rounds, World Labs is valued at over $1 billion.
Li’s firm hopes to build “large world models” that understand and interact with the 3D world. In a post on its website, World Labs states: “We aim to lift AI models from the 2D plane of pixels to full 3D worlds – both virtual and real – endowing them with spatial intelligence as rich as our own.”
It adds: “Human spatial intelligence evolved over millennia; but in this time of extraordinary progress, we see the opportunity to imbue AI with this ability in the near term.”
The company says that the product will be targeted at creative users and professionals such as artists, designers, developers, and engineers. Instead of focusing on large language models, the firm’s 3D models could revolutionize AR, VR, and robotics.
What we know about Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs
The startup, based in San Francisco, will also allow users to construct their own 3D world. Apart from Li, co-founders Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, and Ben Mildenhall started the company, which now employs 20 people.
What is a really really hard problem to work on in #AI? My own answer is Spatial Intelligence – a technology that could empower and enable countless possible use cases in creation, design, learning, AR/VR, robotics, and beyond. It’s a real honor that my cofounders @jcjohnss… https://t.co/Krax7TQryB
— Fei-Fei Li (@drfeifei) September 13, 2024
Several prominent AI personalities have invested in the company, such as Jeff Dean, the chief scientist at Google DeepMind, and Geoffrey Hinton, a distinguished former Google AI researcher known for his contributions to machine learning. In addition, the venture arm of Nvidia has also provided support.
Other notable investors include VC and actor Ashton Kutcher, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Li was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI for 2023. She held the position of AI leader at Google Cloud between 2017 and 2018. The academic has also served on Twitter’s board of directors and has advised policymakers, including those at the White House. ReadWrite also lists her as one of the top 10 visionaries in the AI industry.
Update on 22.04 pm BST / 17:04 EST: World Labs told ReadWrite it would not be commenting on its valuation.
Featured image: TED Conference via Flickr / Canva
