What do you think?
Rate this book
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
The moving memoir of a scientist coming of age as an immigrant in America who finds her calling at the forefront of the AI revolution.
Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li “one of a tiny group of scientists―a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table―who are responsible for AI’s recent remarkable advances.”
Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. As immigrants, her family faced a difficult transition from China’s middle class to American poverty. And their lives were made all the harder as they struggled to care for her ailing mother, who was working tirelessly to help them all gain a foothold in their new land.
Fei-Fei’s adolescent knack for physics endured, however, and positioned her to make a crucial contribution to the breakthrough we now call AI, placing her at the center of a global transformation. Over the last decades, her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities―and the extraordinary dangers―of the technology she loves.
The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century’s defining moments from the inside. It provides a riveting story of a scientist at work and a thrillingly clear explanation of what artificial intelligence actually is―and how it came to be. Emotionally raw and intellectually uncompromising, this book is a testament not only to the passion required for even the most technical scholarship but also to the curiosity forever at its heart.
Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li “one of a tiny group of scientists―a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table―who are responsible for AI’s recent remarkable advances.”
Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. As immigrants, her family faced a difficult transition from China’s middle class to American poverty. And their lives were made all the harder as they struggled to care for her ailing mother, who was working tirelessly to help them all gain a foothold in their new land.
Fei-Fei’s adolescent knack for physics endured, however, and positioned her to make a crucial contribution to the breakthrough we now call AI, placing her at the center of a global transformation. Over the last decades, her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities―and the extraordinary dangers―of the technology she loves.
The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century’s defining moments from the inside. It provides a riveting story of a scientist at work and a thrillingly clear explanation of what artificial intelligence actually is―and how it came to be. Emotionally raw and intellectually uncompromising, this book is a testament not only to the passion required for even the most technical scholarship but also to the curiosity forever at its heart.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2023
1485 people are currently reading
13248 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 611 reviews
November 4, 2023
"How can AI, above all else, respect human dignity?” That’s the question Dr. Fei-Fei Li asked her students at Stanford and one she challenges us to consider in her powerful memoir, The Worlds I See.
Dr. Li is a renowned computer scientist who played a pivotal role in the development of modern artificial intelligence. She writes about her experiences as an immigrant and a daughter, as a student and a teacher—and about her deep love for the work that has cemented her reputation as a leading thinker in AI.
As the world grapples with the implications of AI, Dr. Li provides a hopeful, human-centered vision for how this powerful technology can improve our lives. The Worlds I See is both a fascinating peek behind the curtain of a major scientific breakthrough and an inspiring story of one woman’s curiosity and courage.
Dr. Li is a renowned computer scientist who played a pivotal role in the development of modern artificial intelligence. She writes about her experiences as an immigrant and a daughter, as a student and a teacher—and about her deep love for the work that has cemented her reputation as a leading thinker in AI.
As the world grapples with the implications of AI, Dr. Li provides a hopeful, human-centered vision for how this powerful technology can improve our lives. The Worlds I See is both a fascinating peek behind the curtain of a major scientific breakthrough and an inspiring story of one woman’s curiosity and courage.
December 13, 2023
Favorite non-fiction of 2023.
Her high school math teacher!
Her parents’ sacrifices. And that she would return from Princeton on the weekends to work in the dry cleaning shop. Absolutely devoid of any feelings of entitlement.
Her calculator that her dad got at a garage sale, and her math teacher finally figured out the TAN key didn’t work!
I love how as she tells her story she pays special attention to the help others gave her. Such a mark of a grand soul.
Her high school math teacher!
Her parents’ sacrifices. And that she would return from Princeton on the weekends to work in the dry cleaning shop. Absolutely devoid of any feelings of entitlement.
Her calculator that her dad got at a garage sale, and her math teacher finally figured out the TAN key didn’t work!
I love how as she tells her story she pays special attention to the help others gave her. Such a mark of a grand soul.
September 24, 2024
This is a very powerful memoir of an achiever who has had a significant role in getting AI to where it is today. I watched videos featuring her on Youtube (including the book release function at Stanford) and TED, all of which were very interesting.
This is more of her life journey and not an explanatory book about AI. That worked well for me as it provided context to her work, and I found her story inspiring. The early part of the book covers her family in China and their emigration to the US. There were challenges as she adapted to a new country culture & language, making it over time with hard work & persistence, other than support from family and well-wishers.
We are at a stage where neural networks & deep learning have revolutionised AI. It has taken ~50 years for everything to come together. Her recounting the journey to where we are makes for fascinating reading. She recognized the ability to recognize categories being critical to AI, other than learning from examples. She pioneered the Bayesian one shot recognition algorithm where the AI recognized an airplane based on just one image used for training, though the model was also shown many other categories. After all, this is how humans learn – as children it is not as if we need to see 1000 cats to recognize the next one which comes along, but rather are exposed to various different categories of objects. The paper she wrote became very popular.
Fei Fei Li understood the criticality which data would play in AI, at a time when the focus was largely on algorithms. During a visit to Princeton for a lecture, she was introduced to WordNet – to build a map of human understanding by grouping related words. This prompted her to conceptualize and build ImageNet – a similar map for images. She and her team used engineering innovations & crowdsourcing to speed up ImageNet (initially estimated as needing 19 years!). This combined with AlexNet, a convolutional neural network, represented new progress. This was also the time she was grappling with issues around her mother’s health. She has later moved on to other areas such as videos, ambient intelligence, and other related AI areas. She also did a stint at Google Cloud during a sabbatical from Stanford which she mentions helped her realize how critical private involvement is in research.
Fei Fei Li recognizes that we now have legitimate concerns with respect to AI which have to be addressed - explainability, bias, fairness, safety, fraud, disinformation etc. She was one of those called to testify at Capitol Hill based on her work in the field, and has briefed legislators. She is involved with AI4All and the UN scientific advisory board. She mentions how technology & AI have to respect human dignity and is focused on 'Human Centered AI". She asserts that It is important for institutions beyond science to play a constructive role.
This is a very well-written and inspiring book of an achiever who made it with her hard work & imagination. This is one of the most gracious memoirs I have read – where she selflessly credits others who helped her in her journey. The science is described at a level where it caters to those already conversant with the field, as also those with an interest but no first-hand knowledge, and that is not easy to do.
A much recommended read! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Cindy Kay, and it was very good.
This is more of her life journey and not an explanatory book about AI. That worked well for me as it provided context to her work, and I found her story inspiring. The early part of the book covers her family in China and their emigration to the US. There were challenges as she adapted to a new country culture & language, making it over time with hard work & persistence, other than support from family and well-wishers.
We are at a stage where neural networks & deep learning have revolutionised AI. It has taken ~50 years for everything to come together. Her recounting the journey to where we are makes for fascinating reading. She recognized the ability to recognize categories being critical to AI, other than learning from examples. She pioneered the Bayesian one shot recognition algorithm where the AI recognized an airplane based on just one image used for training, though the model was also shown many other categories. After all, this is how humans learn – as children it is not as if we need to see 1000 cats to recognize the next one which comes along, but rather are exposed to various different categories of objects. The paper she wrote became very popular.
Fei Fei Li understood the criticality which data would play in AI, at a time when the focus was largely on algorithms. During a visit to Princeton for a lecture, she was introduced to WordNet – to build a map of human understanding by grouping related words. This prompted her to conceptualize and build ImageNet – a similar map for images. She and her team used engineering innovations & crowdsourcing to speed up ImageNet (initially estimated as needing 19 years!). This combined with AlexNet, a convolutional neural network, represented new progress. This was also the time she was grappling with issues around her mother’s health. She has later moved on to other areas such as videos, ambient intelligence, and other related AI areas. She also did a stint at Google Cloud during a sabbatical from Stanford which she mentions helped her realize how critical private involvement is in research.
Fei Fei Li recognizes that we now have legitimate concerns with respect to AI which have to be addressed - explainability, bias, fairness, safety, fraud, disinformation etc. She was one of those called to testify at Capitol Hill based on her work in the field, and has briefed legislators. She is involved with AI4All and the UN scientific advisory board. She mentions how technology & AI have to respect human dignity and is focused on 'Human Centered AI". She asserts that It is important for institutions beyond science to play a constructive role.
This is a very well-written and inspiring book of an achiever who made it with her hard work & imagination. This is one of the most gracious memoirs I have read – where she selflessly credits others who helped her in her journey. The science is described at a level where it caters to those already conversant with the field, as also those with an interest but no first-hand knowledge, and that is not easy to do.
A much recommended read! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Cindy Kay, and it was very good.
January 1, 2024
I was never interested in pursuing the vast field of AI as a student but this book makes me want to dip my toes in a little. Dr. Fei-Fei Li is SO PHENOMENAL I COULD CRY. I was like this many times while reading: 🥹.
I love the format. Like fiction would switch between multiple character's POVs, Dr. Li switches between history of AI, memoir, pivotal moments, and opinion. So I'm learning about AI and enjoying good story telling at the same time. Educational and engaging! Would recc to all my fellow women in tech as well as anyone interested in AI.
My only crit is I wish she talked more about being a woman in a male-dominated field. It was only touched on towards the end. It felt odd to only read about the struggles of being an immigrant and nothing about being a woman when all her colleagues and mentors were men and she literally started a program for girls in AI :(. Still, this type of book is exactly what I need when I'm feeling bad about humans. I love learning about awesome people.
I love the format. Like fiction would switch between multiple character's POVs, Dr. Li switches between history of AI, memoir, pivotal moments, and opinion. So I'm learning about AI and enjoying good story telling at the same time. Educational and engaging! Would recc to all my fellow women in tech as well as anyone interested in AI.
My only crit is I wish she talked more about being a woman in a male-dominated field. It was only touched on towards the end. It felt odd to only read about the struggles of being an immigrant and nothing about being a woman when all her colleagues and mentors were men and she literally started a program for girls in AI :(. Still, this type of book is exactly what I need when I'm feeling bad about humans. I love learning about awesome people.
January 25, 2024
Things I liked:
- hearing in detail about her family's experiences surviving as new immigrants and how it influenced her life
- interesting commentary on her thoughts about AI ethics
Things I didn't like:
- self congratulatory writing style
- somewhat narrow/limited view on the overall landscape of the field, I would have appreciated hearing more how her work fit into the broader context
- worship and lack of criticism about academia
- omissions of details I was interested in: her growing family and effect on an academic career, how her cultural background and being a woman in the field influenced her life
- hearing in detail about her family's experiences surviving as new immigrants and how it influenced her life
- interesting commentary on her thoughts about AI ethics
Things I didn't like:
- self congratulatory writing style
- somewhat narrow/limited view on the overall landscape of the field, I would have appreciated hearing more how her work fit into the broader context
- worship and lack of criticism about academia
- omissions of details I was interested in: her growing family and effect on an academic career, how her cultural background and being a woman in the field influenced her life
February 11, 2024
80% memoir, 20% information about AI. Does not include information about newer AI tools, just the pre 2019 history.
To say I hate the word “techlash” is an understatement.
Techlash is a term coined by The Economist to describe a new phenomenon: growing hostility towards the tech giants.
To say I hate the word “techlash” is an understatement.
Techlash is a term coined by The Economist to describe a new phenomenon: growing hostility towards the tech giants.
May 10, 2024
"The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI" (2023) by Fei-Fei Li has been sold as a memoir of recent developments in AI but has very little to say. Li has made a mark on recent developments in AI. Still, neither these discoveries nor her personal life story, her emigration from China to the USA, have the salience to justify an entire memoir. Although compared to many celebrity memoirs, it does have the advantage of teaching us something. But the writing doesn't help either, as it presents itself as a description of what happened without any effort at narrativisation or dramatisation.
It's only halfway through the book that we get involved with the story when Li tells us about the creation of ImageNet and how Convolutional Neural Networks would take advantage of her work to deepen the use of Deep Learning in image interpretation. As interesting as it is, it's far from enough.
It's only halfway through the book that we get involved with the story when Li tells us about the creation of ImageNet and how Convolutional Neural Networks would take advantage of her work to deepen the use of Deep Learning in image interpretation. As interesting as it is, it's far from enough.
July 14, 2024
first half was good. second half dragged on. will be a while until I read another one of mom's recommendations.
May 28, 2025
This is the incredible memoir of Dr. Fei Fei Li, and current Stanford CS chair in Human Centered Artificial Intelligence, onetime head of Google's AI group. Far from being just a rote recitation of her manifold achievements and accomplishments, her memoir is worth reading because it shows the nonlinear route and difficulties of the immigrant experience; because it is an earnest and joyous celebration of the passions of research and the pursuit of knowledge and ideas; and because it showcases the best of America when it lives up, as Dr. Fei Fei Li notes, to its chosen ideals.
Dr. Li is honest about the hardships of being a first-generation immigrant and shows the reader the motivations and dedication of her immigrant parents. A lot of her success is to be credited to the singular fortitude and visionary determination of her mother. Her parents lived an erstwhile comfortable middle-class life in China, but they wanted a life of no inhibitions on the dreams of their daughter. With her father being a gentle soul with childlike wonder at nature and American garage sale treasures alike, and her mother being a strong believer in individualist thinking that had no patience for beliefs that women's intellectual growth or potential can be restricted, both her parents felt at odds with the culture of conformity, status-chasing, and hierarchy-bowing that was prevalent in their community. Her mother wanted Fei Fei Li to read a breadth of books, beyond what was recommended for cultural cohesiveness in their curriculum. Both of her parents showed threads of subversion that ultimately propelled them to America, wherein they endured long hours, menial work, and the brink of poverty for one singular goal: so that Fei Fei could pursue her dream of science, no matter the material sacrifice for her parents.
In a series of touching scenes, Fei Fei consulted her mother about the inflection points of her life. She could desert her academic career and pursue the lucrative careers chasing after her in finance, or consulting firms, or banking, as a leading Ivy League graduate in a numerical field. Her mother, afflicted at that point with life threatening diseases such as rheumatic disease or congestive heart failure, toiling in darning clothes as part of her dry-clean and mending business, would ask her: "But is this what you want?" When Fei Fei replies that her dream is in science, but she would like to give her parents the creature comforts and outward success that every immigrant imagines, her mother would interrupt: If this is her dream, to be in science or in academia, then why are they discussing alternatives? Her mother's love was a fierce one that had no ceiling.
Another noteworthy aspect of Dr. Li's memoir is her passion for research and the pursuit of knowledge that radiates off the page and communicates itself so well with the reader. This passion carried her through the hard parts of her youth, when she had to work young in Chinese restaurants in proclamably seedy areas at night under the table, entrenched in anxieties about finances and the despairing destinies of similar immigrants beside her, who seemed unable to escape the lifestyle of scraping by. She would read the biographies of her scientific heroes, Einstein chief among them, and continue to dream. Her accounts of the research life, of long days where she is in the flow of questions and solutions about her field of computer vision and artificial intelligence, are stimulating ones to read that expose what's truly involved in the life of shcolarship.
Lastly, this memoir is a wonderful read because it shows how America could be when it is at its best: openhearted, kind and providing immigrants and citizens the right to the pursuit of happiness, enabling them to soar as far as their dreams. Dr. Li received a full ride scholarship to Princeton through generous financial aid that changed the course and stakes of her life. Her mother's life was extended when doctors operated on her for free, when paying the operation would have bankrupted the family. Dr. Li encountered a mentor in high school, her math teacher, who provided a lifeline for her intellectual interests and solace during an isolating time. This math teacher's family later became her second family, who even went so far as to lend her parents $80000 even though public school teachers earn little in the US. They cobbled these funds together so that Dr. Li's parents could escape the hopeless grind and start their own dry-clean business. This kind of generosity, of recognition of others in the diverse community, is an ideal strength of the US that obviously has huge paybacks as its population's gifts are enriched and encouraged, towards fruitful, meaningful lives and contributions.
For this reason and others, this is an unforgettable memoir from Dr. Fei Fei Li.
Dr. Li is honest about the hardships of being a first-generation immigrant and shows the reader the motivations and dedication of her immigrant parents. A lot of her success is to be credited to the singular fortitude and visionary determination of her mother. Her parents lived an erstwhile comfortable middle-class life in China, but they wanted a life of no inhibitions on the dreams of their daughter. With her father being a gentle soul with childlike wonder at nature and American garage sale treasures alike, and her mother being a strong believer in individualist thinking that had no patience for beliefs that women's intellectual growth or potential can be restricted, both her parents felt at odds with the culture of conformity, status-chasing, and hierarchy-bowing that was prevalent in their community. Her mother wanted Fei Fei Li to read a breadth of books, beyond what was recommended for cultural cohesiveness in their curriculum. Both of her parents showed threads of subversion that ultimately propelled them to America, wherein they endured long hours, menial work, and the brink of poverty for one singular goal: so that Fei Fei could pursue her dream of science, no matter the material sacrifice for her parents.
In a series of touching scenes, Fei Fei consulted her mother about the inflection points of her life. She could desert her academic career and pursue the lucrative careers chasing after her in finance, or consulting firms, or banking, as a leading Ivy League graduate in a numerical field. Her mother, afflicted at that point with life threatening diseases such as rheumatic disease or congestive heart failure, toiling in darning clothes as part of her dry-clean and mending business, would ask her: "But is this what you want?" When Fei Fei replies that her dream is in science, but she would like to give her parents the creature comforts and outward success that every immigrant imagines, her mother would interrupt: If this is her dream, to be in science or in academia, then why are they discussing alternatives? Her mother's love was a fierce one that had no ceiling.
Another noteworthy aspect of Dr. Li's memoir is her passion for research and the pursuit of knowledge that radiates off the page and communicates itself so well with the reader. This passion carried her through the hard parts of her youth, when she had to work young in Chinese restaurants in proclamably seedy areas at night under the table, entrenched in anxieties about finances and the despairing destinies of similar immigrants beside her, who seemed unable to escape the lifestyle of scraping by. She would read the biographies of her scientific heroes, Einstein chief among them, and continue to dream. Her accounts of the research life, of long days where she is in the flow of questions and solutions about her field of computer vision and artificial intelligence, are stimulating ones to read that expose what's truly involved in the life of shcolarship.
Lastly, this memoir is a wonderful read because it shows how America could be when it is at its best: openhearted, kind and providing immigrants and citizens the right to the pursuit of happiness, enabling them to soar as far as their dreams. Dr. Li received a full ride scholarship to Princeton through generous financial aid that changed the course and stakes of her life. Her mother's life was extended when doctors operated on her for free, when paying the operation would have bankrupted the family. Dr. Li encountered a mentor in high school, her math teacher, who provided a lifeline for her intellectual interests and solace during an isolating time. This math teacher's family later became her second family, who even went so far as to lend her parents $80000 even though public school teachers earn little in the US. They cobbled these funds together so that Dr. Li's parents could escape the hopeless grind and start their own dry-clean business. This kind of generosity, of recognition of others in the diverse community, is an ideal strength of the US that obviously has huge paybacks as its population's gifts are enriched and encouraged, towards fruitful, meaningful lives and contributions.
For this reason and others, this is an unforgettable memoir from Dr. Fei Fei Li.
June 11, 2025
I was fascinated by this memoir of Dr Li, a Chinese immigrant who came to America at the age of 10. She came understanding little English, was immediately ostracized mostly due to language barrier; her Asian background was also a contributor. But she was quite smart and driven and with the help of a wonderful teacher, managed to become one of the leading scientists in the development of AI specifically specializing in image recognition. Like all of us, her life experiences shaped her world view and her scientific compass.
Her story is fascinating and earnest, the memoir is beautifully written and riveting. The lens through which she tells the story is equally fascinating tale of American cultural assimilation, unconscious bias, dual consciousness necessary to be successful in the increasingly all corporate and technical world that we have created in modern society. Dr Li is most comfortable with her role in academia, yet her stint in the corporate world led to leaps in AI technology. What is most fascinating to me is that her focus now surrounds the ethical use of technology. She is certain that technology can help bring positive progress to mankind and the earth but is driven to try to create guardrails on its usage. Keeping in mind current events, it's a profoundly scary position. She understands the potential power to be unleashed and seems unsettled about the future.
What is Dr Li afraid of?!? She never states her fears outright in the book, but she changed the focus of her career toward ethics and returned to the far less lucrative world of academia to prepare the next generation. I do think Li worked very hard towards being a normal, sympathetic, American figure. It smacked of assimilation as her ties to academia grew. Nonetheless, this was a compelling and worthwhile memoir.
4+ Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Cindy Kay was excellent!
Her story is fascinating and earnest, the memoir is beautifully written and riveting. The lens through which she tells the story is equally fascinating tale of American cultural assimilation, unconscious bias, dual consciousness necessary to be successful in the increasingly all corporate and technical world that we have created in modern society. Dr Li is most comfortable with her role in academia, yet her stint in the corporate world led to leaps in AI technology. What is most fascinating to me is that her focus now surrounds the ethical use of technology. She is certain that technology can help bring positive progress to mankind and the earth but is driven to try to create guardrails on its usage. Keeping in mind current events, it's a profoundly scary position. She understands the potential power to be unleashed and seems unsettled about the future.
"I’d used many different words to describe this new incarnation of what I once had viewed purely as a science. “Phenomenon.” “Disruption.” “Puzzle.” “Privilege.” “Force of nature.” But as I retraced my steps across the capital, one new word took precedence. AI was now a responsibility."
"I believe our civilization stands on the cusp of a technological revolution with the power to reshape life as we know it. To ignore the millennia of human struggle that serves as our society’s foundation, however—to merely “disrupt,” with the blitheness that has accompanied so much of this century’s innovation—would be an intolerable mistake. This revolution must build on that foundation, faithfully. It must respect the collective dignity of a global community."
What is Dr Li afraid of?!? She never states her fears outright in the book, but she changed the focus of her career toward ethics and returned to the far less lucrative world of academia to prepare the next generation. I do think Li worked very hard towards being a normal, sympathetic, American figure. It smacked of assimilation as her ties to academia grew. Nonetheless, this was a compelling and worthwhile memoir.
4+ Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Cindy Kay was excellent!
June 27, 2024
Personal bio
Very little on AI or great insights for anyone that is remotely familiar with AI
Very little on AI or great insights for anyone that is remotely familiar with AI
December 11, 2024
I definitely see why they chose this for the Princeton Pre-Read in 2024. Clearly certain themes resonated (immigration, being a woman of color in STEM, being low income at Princeton, code switching between home and school, being early to the rise of AI). Also, the financial aid package she received makes Princeton (rightly) look very good and she is obviously drinking copiously of the orange kool-aid.
This book is not nearly as boring as I feared it would be, but also not as interesting as a lot of other books they could have had the entire incoming class read and discuss together.
The author Fei-Fei Li loves scientific discovery more than almost anyone. She describes a beautiful Pasadena morning and then says: "No sky was blue enough to compete with the promise of scientific discovery in a shadowy basement lab with blackout curtains." Hmm. I tend to disagree. This might partly explain why she managed to attend Princeton for 4 years without attending a single party, but also how she went from Princeton undergrad to a Caltech PhD to becoming a faculty member at Princeton and then Stanford, rejecting a job at McKinsey along the way because she simply loves science so much. The world certainly needs people like her.
This book is not nearly as boring as I feared it would be, but also not as interesting as a lot of other books they could have had the entire incoming class read and discuss together.
The author Fei-Fei Li loves scientific discovery more than almost anyone. She describes a beautiful Pasadena morning and then says: "No sky was blue enough to compete with the promise of scientific discovery in a shadowy basement lab with blackout curtains." Hmm. I tend to disagree. This might partly explain why she managed to attend Princeton for 4 years without attending a single party, but also how she went from Princeton undergrad to a Caltech PhD to becoming a faculty member at Princeton and then Stanford, rejecting a job at McKinsey along the way because she simply loves science so much. The world certainly needs people like her.
May 10, 2024
It allocates a lot of repetitive space for immigrant experience, academia life and its problems, curiosity and scientific research. While it tries to embed evolution of AI research into her personal story, if your main goal is to learn the details of the AI history and get a wink about the future, then unfortunately it doesn't have much to say. At the end, it briefly touches the responsibility of AI developer and the influence of big companies and how AI should be human-centered but again that chapter feels like rushed to wrap the book. Overall, promising for the first book of the author but this one is under-delivered.
September 6, 2024
DNF @ 32%
I'm sorry (I know this is harsh) but some people's lives are just not interesting enough to write a memoir. The author immigrated to the US from China as a teenager but after that it's all boring - college and a career in science.
I also can't stand the author's writing style as it feels too "academic". Too many parts going into excruciating scientific detail about the history of AI. For example how ATMs are able to read handwritten numbers on checks. It sounds interesting but the description of how that came to be is way too detailed.
I'm sorry (I know this is harsh) but some people's lives are just not interesting enough to write a memoir. The author immigrated to the US from China as a teenager but after that it's all boring - college and a career in science.
I also can't stand the author's writing style as it feels too "academic". Too many parts going into excruciating scientific detail about the history of AI. For example how ATMs are able to read handwritten numbers on checks. It sounds interesting but the description of how that came to be is way too detailed.
November 26, 2023
This book was so clearly ghost written it’s almost offensive. Chock full of conversations that obviously never happened, SAT words, and a failure to properly acknowledge related and relevant work, along with a stunning omission of so many important female characters, made it a hard read.
January 3, 2024
A fascinating memoir about curiosity, grit and a deep passion for science and the world. Dr Li’s story captivated me from the beginning when her family immigrated from China to America in search of a better life. While she has an innate personal desire to pursue knowledge, she does not forget the encouragement and support along the way. Both from her parents and from her high school teacher, who believed in her when she didn’t even believe in herself (I teared up in that section. It reveals how powerful role models and their faith can be). Even in the face of financial pressures, her support system reminds her that she is a scientist and she shouldn’t give up.
Li does a phenomenal job in dancing between her personal story being a scientist and the revolutionary macro changes in history. Bit by bit, she highlights her place in the STEM field - beginning with her full physics scholarship at Princeton, to her summer project on the West Coast, to her PHD, to her leadership role in ImageNet, to her launch in Healthtech because of her mother, to her teaching roles (Princeton and Stanford!), and to pivoting to Google Cloud. Dr Li never stops asking questions.
I struggled a bit in the middle of the book where it delves deeper into the technical aspects of the projects but was reeled back in in the final chapters where she raises concerns at the turn of the industry: data integrity, human AI, ethics, impatience in students, crazy funding in the private sector. It was cool to see her first hand account with large names and projects of today that were only just sprouting back in her days (Uber’s autonomous driving, OpenAI, Yahoo, Google Cloud, Go etc).
I wish Dr Li talked more about juggling her personal life as a mother in the middle to late stages of her career. There are also some controversies around this book being ghost written so would be curious to find out more if it’s true.
Despite this book being scientific and technical, I still found it well written, humble and compassionately human. The closing remarks really tugged my heartstrings.
Li does a phenomenal job in dancing between her personal story being a scientist and the revolutionary macro changes in history. Bit by bit, she highlights her place in the STEM field - beginning with her full physics scholarship at Princeton, to her summer project on the West Coast, to her PHD, to her leadership role in ImageNet, to her launch in Healthtech because of her mother, to her teaching roles (Princeton and Stanford!), and to pivoting to Google Cloud. Dr Li never stops asking questions.
I struggled a bit in the middle of the book where it delves deeper into the technical aspects of the projects but was reeled back in in the final chapters where she raises concerns at the turn of the industry: data integrity, human AI, ethics, impatience in students, crazy funding in the private sector. It was cool to see her first hand account with large names and projects of today that were only just sprouting back in her days (Uber’s autonomous driving, OpenAI, Yahoo, Google Cloud, Go etc).
I wish Dr Li talked more about juggling her personal life as a mother in the middle to late stages of her career. There are also some controversies around this book being ghost written so would be curious to find out more if it’s true.
Despite this book being scientific and technical, I still found it well written, humble and compassionately human. The closing remarks really tugged my heartstrings.
March 13, 2025
In the era where AI is mentioned at every discussion, this book is important to showcase the science behind machine learning and its evolution, because in the end it is all about data, data, data meaning, the explosion of tech to support machine learning and the concern around bias and data privacy when every word, space, punctuation is being analysed making LLM possible at scale.
February 22, 2024
Not an unbiased review since I'm good friends with the American family mentioned in this, but even still, I thought this was really interesting! I love how Li wove the memoir narrative with the non-fiction information. I'm glad Fei-Fei is fighting to keep humans at the center of AI as things develop and change so quickly and with so little government oversight.
December 24, 2024
Wow! I highly recommend this book. I got this book through a Goodreads Giveaway and I am very glad I did. Dr. Li's story is engaging and difficult to put down. She interweaves A.I. history with her life experience from growing up in China to finishing high school in New Jersey and then in to the esoteric world of academia and A.I. I found the writing style easy to read. The only downside was, as with all memoirs, there is no index. Since that was not expected, I guess it is not really a downside, but I missed it when trying to recall an earlier section of A.I. history or project Dr. Li worked on earlier. I also would have like pictures, especially in the section of the .
This is not a typical immigrant memoir because it was more about A.I. than the immigrant experience. The immigrant struggle is there and interesting but I found this memoir to remind me of Sediments of Time. I learned as much about the scientific area of interest as I did the woman. I also felt the currency of the topic like I did with Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir. This was a wonderful mix of personal and topical. Get your hands and eyes on a copy when you can.
This is not a typical immigrant memoir because it was more about A.I. than the immigrant experience. The immigrant struggle is there and interesting but I found this memoir to remind me of Sediments of Time. I learned as much about the scientific area of interest as I did the woman. I also felt the currency of the topic like I did with Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir. This was a wonderful mix of personal and topical. Get your hands and eyes on a copy when you can.
December 25, 2023
A truly inspiring story of Dr Li, an acclaimed scientist, a woman, an immigrant, who leads the field of AI. Behind the accolades, Dr. Li's account of her journey reminded me that her success wasn't without sacrifices. For example, to make ends meet, she spent her weekends at her parents dry cleaning shop while her Princetonians peers were probably enjoying lives. To build her academic career as an assistant professor, she relocated far away from her family and her husband a few times. After reading the book, I feel slightly more hopeful for humanity. From her high school math teacher who helped her acclimate to American communities, to Dr. Li's own H-AI advocacy work. Such a delight to read this book from start to finish!
--
"The life of a scientist, like the life of an immigrant or the life of an adventurer, is one in which home is never a clear concept. The best work always happens on the borders where ideas are forever trapped between coming and going, explored by strangers and strange lands, insiders and outsiders at the same time...that's what makes us so powerful."
--
"The life of a scientist, like the life of an immigrant or the life of an adventurer, is one in which home is never a clear concept. The best work always happens on the borders where ideas are forever trapped between coming and going, explored by strangers and strange lands, insiders and outsiders at the same time...that's what makes us so powerful."
April 22, 2024
This book is about 80% memoir, 20% insight into Dr. Li's fascinating academic career as the pioneer of ImageNet and prominent figure in the study of ambient artificial intelligence. This could have easily been 50%/50% or 20%/80% memoir/AI manifesto (as books by academics tend to be), but I respect and very much enjoyed Dr. Li's choice to focus on her own story. It's clear that she felt that her research approach and outlook has been borne out of her own outlook as an immigrant caring for and surviving with two fellow immigrant parents. I also really appreciated her sharing her struggles throughout her academic career, from feeling pressured to discontinue her studies several times to better support her family, to struggling to build a research program and switching institutions several times early in her career, to navigating a long-distance marriage and young family for many years. The standout portion of her memoir for me was her heartfelt tribute to her high school science teacher, who became a key figure in her life.
January 14, 2024
Right up my alley. My favourite part is the notion of AI is privilege and how the lack of representation fosters “data authoritarianism”. The only shame is that, while there is extensive exploration into Feifei’s many aspects of life - childhood, cultural background, marriage, career etc - and how they all conjure up in the tale of AI, there’s little mention of Feifei’s two children and her motherhood. This perpetuates the idea that women are supposed to live life as usual INSPIRE OF childcare and other domestic duties. The domestic piece steps into the background and becomes invisible in a tale of achievement.
February 19, 2024
I was engaged in the book enough but surprisingly had to do an effort to get back to it all the time. I enjoyed the most memoir part - despite it felt a little too polish in parts. In AI parts it was very interesting to see things put into the context - how incredibly fast the whole thing is developing.
January 1, 2024
What a book. It is so, so good.
November 26, 2025
I'm an English teacher, which means I'm also one of those people who always have whatever they're reading in their email signatures. So for weeks, I've had colleagues come at me all skeptical, like, "Are you REALLY reading that AI thing??"
Yes, I read it -- well, listened to it. I was curious because this guy I know is working with Fei-Fei Li, and they're doing really cool stuff that also feels pretty Ready Player One to me, and meanwhile, there's Waymo and robots who can walk on every terrain now, and what's to stop all of this from becoming military-grade weapons? And what's to say that three years from now, a huge chunk of society won't be living in their own digital worlds AI created for them out of a description they typed up, exclusively talking to and falling in love with AI characters?
Basically, I want to know what someone like Fei-Fei Li is thinking? What drives her?
Okay, here's where I say what you could probably already tell, which is that I'm not very knowledgeable about all this stuff, so this book wasn't the most gripping material for me to get through. It took me a full two months, and I caught myself zoning out during many of the more technical sections. I enjoyed Li's story well enough. Her life seems to be the embodiment of the mostly mythic AmErIcAn DrEaM -- from China to a New Jersey laundromat to Princeton to Stanford to Google to the White House Office of Science and Technology. It's inspiring, I suppose, if you're into that kind of thing.
The most interesting part for me came at the end when she discussed the controversies surrounding AI: how AI can amplify existing social inequalities (because training data reflects human racism and sexism), how AI could replace jobs, how AI could be used for mass surveillance and militarization, how the AI arms race prioritizes speed over ethics, how we need a HUMAN-CENTERED AI that protects human safety and dignity and empowers -- rather than replaces -- them.
But that was, like, the last two chapters. Maybe I should have just Googled "Fei Fei Li human centered AI" and read whatever came up.
Anyway, this book made me like and even trust her. I'm not sure that one person, even the Godmother of AI, can curb the avalanche of MONEY-ABOVE-ALL-ELSE, but I'm rooting for her.
*
Okay, I did just Google "Fei Fei Li human centered AI." Six days ago, Forbes published an articled called "The Scientist Who Taught AI To See Is Now Teaching It To Understand Space." Here's a quote:
Kidding! Kind of.
Yes, I read it -- well, listened to it. I was curious because this guy I know is working with Fei-Fei Li, and they're doing really cool stuff that also feels pretty Ready Player One to me, and meanwhile, there's Waymo and robots who can walk on every terrain now, and what's to stop all of this from becoming military-grade weapons? And what's to say that three years from now, a huge chunk of society won't be living in their own digital worlds AI created for them out of a description they typed up, exclusively talking to and falling in love with AI characters?
Basically, I want to know what someone like Fei-Fei Li is thinking? What drives her?
Okay, here's where I say what you could probably already tell, which is that I'm not very knowledgeable about all this stuff, so this book wasn't the most gripping material for me to get through. It took me a full two months, and I caught myself zoning out during many of the more technical sections. I enjoyed Li's story well enough. Her life seems to be the embodiment of the mostly mythic AmErIcAn DrEaM -- from China to a New Jersey laundromat to Princeton to Stanford to Google to the White House Office of Science and Technology. It's inspiring, I suppose, if you're into that kind of thing.
The most interesting part for me came at the end when she discussed the controversies surrounding AI: how AI can amplify existing social inequalities (because training data reflects human racism and sexism), how AI could replace jobs, how AI could be used for mass surveillance and militarization, how the AI arms race prioritizes speed over ethics, how we need a HUMAN-CENTERED AI that protects human safety and dignity and empowers -- rather than replaces -- them.
But that was, like, the last two chapters. Maybe I should have just Googled "Fei Fei Li human centered AI" and read whatever came up.
Anyway, this book made me like and even trust her. I'm not sure that one person, even the Godmother of AI, can curb the avalanche of MONEY-ABOVE-ALL-ELSE, but I'm rooting for her.
*
Okay, I did just Google "Fei Fei Li human centered AI." Six days ago, Forbes published an articled called "The Scientist Who Taught AI To See Is Now Teaching It To Understand Space." Here's a quote:
With each AI breakthrough driven by Li, from ImageNet to LLMs to spatial intelligence and the launch of Marble, her work keeps circling back to the same principle: intelligence is only meaningful when it serves humanity. And as world models push AI from words into the physical world, that principle becomes the real competitive edge.See! This is what I'm interested in reading about. Maybe this will be the focus of her next book, hopefully written before people stop reading books altogether.
In Li’s view, the next era of innovation won’t be won by companies that simply deploy bigger models. It will be won by leaders who understand that AI’s power— and its risk— grows with its reach. Li is betting that spatial intelligence will redefine how industries operate, how we design and build, and how we respond to the world’s most complex challenges. But she’s equally clear about something Silicon Valley too often forgets: the future of AI isn’t predetermined. It depends on the choices we make.
If world models deliver on their promise, they won’t just help machines understand our world. They’ll help us redesign it with more foresight, more capability, and, if we choose wisely, more humanity.
Kidding! Kind of.
May 11, 2024
Li has been deservedly named the Mother of AI. This is the story of how she got the moniker.
Before Li goes to grad school, about a quarter through the book, the writing is verbose, verging on ostentatious. It seemed like I was reading a college app essay that was trying to convince me that AI is fun and the narrator is passionate about it. Personal anecdotes are split by detours into the history of AI, but they felt too disjointed. You’d read a passage about Li growing up in China and suddenly she’d switch to discussing using AI to read handwriting…
After Li goes to grad school, she drops the ornate language and the narrative becomes a lot more clear. The history of AI really parallels her journey into the field.
It was fascinating reading about Jia Deng as a PhD student since he’s now an eminent computer vision professor and my PI. Li also illuminated how important ImageNet was to modern machine learning, arguably creating the field of deep learning. All of her insights following ImageNet were also interesting, especially her section on AI and healthcare (and how she got into it because of her mom and wanting to do good with AI).
Unfortunately, at the end, Li loses me. The last chapter (or two) read like she just needed to hit a word count.
Nonetheless a very significant memoir by Li published at the right time.
(Her saying if you’re passionate about AI for good, you deserve a spot in my lab really hit.)
Before Li goes to grad school, about a quarter through the book, the writing is verbose, verging on ostentatious. It seemed like I was reading a college app essay that was trying to convince me that AI is fun and the narrator is passionate about it. Personal anecdotes are split by detours into the history of AI, but they felt too disjointed. You’d read a passage about Li growing up in China and suddenly she’d switch to discussing using AI to read handwriting…
After Li goes to grad school, she drops the ornate language and the narrative becomes a lot more clear. The history of AI really parallels her journey into the field.
It was fascinating reading about Jia Deng as a PhD student since he’s now an eminent computer vision professor and my PI. Li also illuminated how important ImageNet was to modern machine learning, arguably creating the field of deep learning. All of her insights following ImageNet were also interesting, especially her section on AI and healthcare (and how she got into it because of her mom and wanting to do good with AI).
Unfortunately, at the end, Li loses me. The last chapter (or two) read like she just needed to hit a word count.
Nonetheless a very significant memoir by Li published at the right time.
(Her saying if you’re passionate about AI for good, you deserve a spot in my lab really hit.)
February 26, 2025
OK I was recommended this by my dad and I did not have high expectations. But, after reading this I can conclude that it's actually really good and a book that I'd recommend to many people.
This book talks about the history of AI and the journey of the author Fei-Fei and how she became intertwined with this world and made her own impressive contributions to the field.
There are also many great explanations of the different stages of AI and how each works and develops. I found Fei-Fei's explanations to be very interesting and informative.
I also really like the writing style in the book. It's casual, and I really felt connected with Fei-Fei throughout her lifetime. I really think she had to have a journal or something because I have no idea how she's able to construct her past events with such detail!
Overall: I highly recommend it if you are curious about the origin of the AI revolution!! Very underrated book :)
Prereview: honestly really good book
This book talks about the history of AI and the journey of the author Fei-Fei and how she became intertwined with this world and made her own impressive contributions to the field.
There are also many great explanations of the different stages of AI and how each works and develops. I found Fei-Fei's explanations to be very interesting and informative.
I also really like the writing style in the book. It's casual, and I really felt connected with Fei-Fei throughout her lifetime. I really think she had to have a journal or something because I have no idea how she's able to construct her past events with such detail!
Overall: I highly recommend it if you are curious about the origin of the AI revolution!! Very underrated book :)
Prereview: honestly really good book
April 25, 2024
I find books on inventions fascinating, they highlight quiet, fast, world-changing achievements. Each one takes shorter time to change the world - from electricity taking centuries to internet taking decades to AI taking just years to transform everything.
This book talks about AI's rapid evolution through the lens of Dr. Fei Fei Li, a leading researcher and lead of the ImageNet project. It details the transition of AI from academia to industry, spotlighting(namedropping?) brilliant people like Hilton, LeCun, and Karpathy!
Not sure if this is an intended analogy along the lines of “how AI helps people achieve more is more important than the tech itself”, but equally interesting and inspiring part of the book is Dr. Li’s personal journey, from her immigrant roots to influential experiences at Princeton and Caltech, with the broader story of AI. Amazingly impactful work and life already!
This book talks about AI's rapid evolution through the lens of Dr. Fei Fei Li, a leading researcher and lead of the ImageNet project. It details the transition of AI from academia to industry, spotlighting(namedropping?) brilliant people like Hilton, LeCun, and Karpathy!
Not sure if this is an intended analogy along the lines of “how AI helps people achieve more is more important than the tech itself”, but equally interesting and inspiring part of the book is Dr. Li’s personal journey, from her immigrant roots to influential experiences at Princeton and Caltech, with the broader story of AI. Amazingly impactful work and life already!
April 30, 2024
4.5 ⭐️. This is a beautifully written, moving and humbling book that interleaves Dr Li’s personal immigrant stories with her scientific journey, her passion and thoughts on AI. Neural networks were all the rage when I started college in 2014, and reading this book made me appreciate the history of the field in a bigger picture. It was hard to imagine the long AI winter just years before. The end of the book touches briefly on recent developments in LLMs. I kind of hoped that Dr Li shared a little more insights instead of a general description.
I’ve seen Dr Li delivering a keynote speech at the Grace Hopper conference, hearing her story of working at the dry cleaning shop for the first time then. Her student, professor Olga Russakovsky, was a professor when I was student in the department, which made me feel personally close to the story. Overall, I find the book beautifully written and very inspiring!
I’ve seen Dr Li delivering a keynote speech at the Grace Hopper conference, hearing her story of working at the dry cleaning shop for the first time then. Her student, professor Olga Russakovsky, was a professor when I was student in the department, which made me feel personally close to the story. Overall, I find the book beautifully written and very inspiring!
April 12, 2025
It reminds me of all the philosophical debates I have had with myself all these years, to make or to think? It will be an ongoing debate, and this book reemphasised the essence is to never stop making and thinking, and keep them reflecting on each other, and that’s probably the meaning and value of being human.
As to the AI topic itself, it was a humbling experience in between reading this book I was in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire, as someone with no clue of AI, assigned a task to debate the necessity of AI explainability. I felt lucky I chose the supporting side and genuinely see the value of humanity from a weekend’s search of the arguments.
The North Star will always be there leading the way, to see more of the world little by little.
As to the AI topic itself, it was a humbling experience in between reading this book I was in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire, as someone with no clue of AI, assigned a task to debate the necessity of AI explainability. I felt lucky I chose the supporting side and genuinely see the value of humanity from a weekend’s search of the arguments.
The North Star will always be there leading the way, to see more of the world little by little.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 611 reviews