In a recent revelation, the artificial intelligence (AI) community has been thrust into a contentious discussion surrounding gender representation after the omission of Fei-Fei Li from the New York Times’ “Who’s Who Behind the Dawn of the Modern Artificial Intelligence Movement” list.
The list, published on December 3, 2023, spotlighted twelve influential figures instrumental in the growth of AI over the past decade, including industry giants such as Sam Altman, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. However, a striking absence of women, notably Fei-Fei Li, has ignited a broader conversation about gender diversity in the AI landscape.
Fei-Fei Li is a distinguished computer science researcher recognized for her creation of ImageNet, a pioneering dataset, that drove progress in computer vision, and paved the way for AlexNet. Her contributions, spanning nearly 15 years as a professor at Stanford University and co-director of the Stanford University Human-Centered AI Institute, have significantly shaped the AI field.
According to VentureBeat, the New York Times described the featured individuals as “a group of researchers, tech executives and venture capitalists” who “had worked for more than a decade to fuel AI” before chatbots “exploded in popularity.”
The list’s lack of gender diversity, particularly the absence of women like Fei-Fei Li, has sparked widespread criticism and calls for a more inclusive representation of the diverse talent within the AI community.
Featured Image Source: Caltech EE
