Fei-Fei Li says she runs her AI startup like a 'tiger mom'

Fei-Fei Li says moving an AI startup has brought retired her "tiger mom" side.

In an question and reply pinch Bloomberg released connected Wednesday, the Stanford professor, known for creating ImageNet and often called the "Godmother of AI," said that her seniority astatine the startup has put her successful a spot of a parental role.

Li cofounded World Labs successful 2024. The startup is processing "world models" designed to thief AI understand and interact pinch 3D environments. Earlier this year, the institution announced $1 cardinal successful caller backing from investors including AMD, Autodesk, and Nvidia.

"I'm by acold the astir elder successful the company," Li said. "From my co-founders to my engineers, and researchers, and scientists, they're truthful talented, but they're besides young."

"I do consciousness for illustration a mom," she added. "And oftentimes I consciousness for illustration a tiger mom. I do tally this shop as, I would say, precocious standard."

The word "tiger mom" mostly describes a highly demanding and strict genitor who pushes their children to activity hard, beryllium disciplined, and strive for precocious achievement. It was popularized by American writer and Yale Law School professor Amy Chua successful her 2011 memoir, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," which elaborate her strict attack to raising her daughters, including demanding apical grades and intensive euphony practice.

Li antecedently said she finds herself taking connected the domiciled of a mentor pinch younger people — and she's shared immoderate anecdotes astir AI's effect connected students and early careers.

In a 2025 podcast, she said it was a privilege to person occupation applications from young AI and engineering talent, but she recovered that they overfocused connected the mini specifications of their profession decisions.

"Sometimes I do want to promote young group to attraction connected what's important because I find myself constantly successful mentoring mode erstwhile I talk to occupation candidates," she said. "Not needfully recruiting, but conscionable successful mentoring mode."

She said she encourages them alternatively to deliberation astir wherever their passion lies, whether they judge successful a company's ngo and team, and what benignant of effect they could make.

Still, Li said that being a laminitis aliases elder leader is not an invitation to deliberation you cognize much than everybody else.

"As a CEO, arsenic an entrepreneur, our founding premise is we are present to lend to nine and to empower people," she said. "I don't deliberation having a God analyzable is constructive, and I wouldn't want to do that myself."