Fei-fei Li on spatial intelligence
From World Labs' Fei-Fei Li on Creating Large World Models · · Bloomberg Live
“The case for us is a 500 million year story, is that animal intelligence starts with seeing and moving in the physical world. That evolution began with us as animals, knowing what the world is, knowing who we are, knowing how to move around it, interact with it. And much of life, human life, human work life, human private life has a lot to do with perceiving, understanding, reasoning, interaction with the world, including imaginary world of creativity, of productivity, as virtual worlds. So unlocking that capability in machines, unlocking the capability of generating alien 3D, 4D worlds, unlocking the capability of reasoning within any world. Unlocking the capability of teaching agents or robots, or assisting humans to interact with the world is what spatial intelligence is about.”
On , Fei-fei Li, Co-Director at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, spoke about spatial intelligence during World Labs' Fei-Fei Li on Creating Large World Models on Bloomberg Live.
About Fei-fei Li
Fei-Fei Li, co-founder and CEO of World Labs and co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, appeared at Bloomberg Tech 2026 in San Francisco on June 2, 2026. She discussed her company’s focus on spatial intelligence and building a "large world model," which she described as a technology rooted in the evolution of animal intelligence—starting with seeing and moving in the physical world. Li stated that World Labs is working on "one of the most critical technology in the speech of physical intelligence" and expressed hope that the company will ship a model over spatial intelligence this year that will inspire "incredibly exciting product opportunities." Li also commented on industry trends and safety discourse. She said she has been "more measured" on AI safety rhetoric, noting that "there's so much hype" and that the field needs "thoughtfulness to invest in the right effort." Regarding the term AGI, Li said she does not engage with it, adding that she is focused on building technology that can "make a difference in people's lives." She argued that robotics will be "one of the most important revolutions in human industrialization" and that $6 billion in investment is "too small" compared to past investments in self-driving cars and language models. Li also called for changing K-16 education, stating that AI's ability to outperform average humans on standardized tests means "we need to change the education."