Born in Beijing, Li came to the United States when she was 16. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Princeton University, Li attended the California Institute of Technology, where she received a Master of Science and PhD in electrical engineering. As an assistant professor at the Computer Science Department at Princeton University, Li led the development of ImageNet, a visual database designed for use in visual object recognition software research, which has contributed to key developments in deep learning and artificial intelligence. She has been called the godmother of AI. To help address AI’s lack of diversity, Li, along with Olga Russakovsky and Rick Sommer, founded AI4ALL, a nonprofit organization working to increase diversity and inclusion in the field of artificial intelligence. Li is currently the Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and a Founding Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute.
