344. Fei-Fei Li with Todd Bishop: Using AI to Empower Humans

Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

Depending on who you overhear, conversations surrounding the controversial AI Chat Bot, Chat GPT, may be punctuated with terms like, “groundbreaking!” “paradigm-shifting!” “innovative!” or conversely might be filled with calls of “terrifying!” “mistake!” or “too far!” But peering through either lens, it is hard not to imagine that AI will diminish the necessity for human involvement, human experiences, or human ideas in some sense.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a computer science professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. If “Human-Centered AI” sounds like an oxymoron to you, you probably maintain a strong conceptual divide between what is considered “human” and what is “machine.” Yet Li is of a group of scientists who envision a future where AI is designed with the intent to enhance the abilities of and empower real human beings.

Li’s own story is one of struggle, passion, and resilience. Immigrating from China, her family faced the difficult transition from their home country’s middle class, into American poverty. Despite struggling to care for her ailing mother, who worked tirelessly to establish a foothold in their new land, Li maintained a passion and natural aptitude for physics. Now Li is releasing her new book entitled, The Worlds I See. In this reflection on life and AI, the Stanford professor presents a clear explanation of the term artificial intelligence, as well as a personal saga that demonstrates the ardor and creativity involved in producing even the most technical scholarship.

Join Dr. Li at Town Hall Seattle, where the AI expert will make a case for human-centric approaches in developing this new technology.

Fei-Fei Li is a computer science professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI as well as a founder and chairperson of the board of the nonprofit AI4ALL. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Todd Bishop is GeekWire’s co-founder, a longtime business and technology journalist who reports on subjects including AI, the cloud, startups, and health technology, plus Amazon and Microsoft, in addition to hosting GeekWire’s weekly podcast. A native of Orland, Calif., he has worked as a reporter for publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Puget Sound Business Journal, and the Seattle P-I.

The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI The Elliott Bay Book Company