AI's Next Frontier: World Models Beyond Language

Resources

Resources & Recommendations

Books

• Fei-Fei Li's book - Mentioned by Dr. Li as a place where she discusses the many people who have inspired her throughout her career.

Research & Studies

• "The Bitter Lesson" by Richard Sutton - A paper discussing the historical trend in AI where simpler models with abundant data often outperform more complex models with less data.
• First academic paper on Foundation Model (Percy Liang and other Stanford researchers) - Stanford's AI Institute was the first to establish a full research center on foundation models, leading to this foundational paper.

Tools & Software

• Figma Make - A tool that allows users to turn ideas or designs into fully functional prototypes or apps using prompts, built within the Figma ecosystem.
• Marble (marble.worldlabs.ai) - The world's first large world model that generates infinitely explorable 3D worlds from prompts, allowing users to navigate and interact within them.

People Mentioned

• Fei-Fei Li (Godmother of AI, Professor at Stanford, Co-founder of World Labs) - The main guest, a prominent figure in AI responsible for ImageNet and advocating for human-centered AI.
• Alan Turing - Pioneer in theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, who famously posed the question "Can machines think?"
• John McCarthy (Stanford Professor) - Coined the term "artificial intelligence" at the Dartmouth workshop in 1956.
• Jeff Hinton (Professor, Toronto researcher) - Led the group that achieved a breakthrough in object recognition using ImageNet, deep learning, and GPUs in 2012.
• Jeff Dean (Google) - A prominent figure at Google AI, mentioned by Dr. Li as someone she wanted to work with.
• Alex Wong (Founder of Scale AI) - His company, Scale AI, was inspired by ImageNet's approach to data labeling for AI models.
• Elon Musk - Referenced as someone now talking about world models, indicating growing interest in the concept.
• Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) - Referenced as someone now talking about world models, indicating growing interest in the concept.
• Demis Hassabis (DeepMind Google) - CEO of DeepMind, mentioned for his interesting perspective on AGI and whether current AI could replicate historical scientific breakthroughs.
• Ben Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz) - Investor in World Labs and suggested a question for Dr. Li during the podcast.
• Condoleezza Rice - Suggested topics for the conversation.
• Richard Sutton - Author of "The Bitter Lesson" paper, a recent Turing Award winner known for his work in reinforcement learning.
• Percy Liang (Stanford Professor) - Natural language processing colleague at Stanford, co-director of the Stanford AI Institute, and a key figure in the first academic paper on foundation models.
• Chris Manning (Stanford Professor) - Natural language processing colleague at Stanford, co-director of the Stanford AI Institute.
• Justin Johnson (Co-founder of World Labs) - Co-founder of World Labs with a deep technical history in AI.
• Christoph Lasner (Co-founder of World Labs) - Co-founder of World Labs with a deep technical history in AI.
• Ben Mildenhall (Co-founder of World Labs) - Co-founder of World Labs with a deep technical history in AI.
• Sebastian Thrun (Stanford Professor) - Led the Stanford team that won the first DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 with a self-driving car.
• Rosalind Franklin - Her X-ray diffraction photo was crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA.
• James Watson - Along with Francis Crick, deduced the double helix structure of DNA, using Rosalind Franklin's data.
• Francis Crick - Along with James Watson, deduced the double helix structure of DNA, using Rosalind Franklin's data.
• Charlie Munger - Quoted for his advice: "take a simple idea and take it very seriously."

Organizations & Institutions

• Google Cloud - Dr. Li was Chief AI Scientist here, where significant early AI technology breakthroughs emerged.
• SAIL (Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Lab) - Dr. Li was director here, a place where many prominent AI minds developed.
• Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI) - Co-created by Dr. Li, it plays a vital role in the direction of AI, focusing on research, education, and policy impact rooted in human benevolence.
• Twitter - Dr. Li served on its board.
• United Nations Advisory Board - Dr. Li is a member of this board.
• Caltech - Dr. Li began her Ph.D. here in 2000, studying machine learning and neural networks.
• Dartmouth Workshop (1956) - Considered the birthplace of artificial intelligence as a field.
• DeepMind Google - Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, was mentioned in the context of AGI discussions.
• World Labs (worldlabs.ai) - A frontier model company co-founded by Dr. Li, focused on spatial AI and world modeling, which developed Marble.
• Sony - Collaborated with World Labs, using Marble scenes for virtual production in their launch video.

Websites & Online Resources

• Marble (marble.worldlabs.ai) - The website to access and interact with the Marble large world model.
• World Labs (www.worldlabs.ai) - The company website where users can find research progress, technical blogs, job postings, and access the Marble product.
• New York Times - Dr. Li wrote an article here in 2018 about the need for a human-centered framework for AI development.