Fei-Fei Li, widely known as the ‘godmother’ of artificial intelligence (AI), is continuing to create history. She is the sole woman in a team of seven groundbreaking innovators to be awarded the coveted 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. The King himself gave the award to Flora during a special ceremony at St James’s Palace. It honors engineers who have produced paradigm-shifting inventions that improve people’s lives in transformative ways.
The other six recipients of this honor include prominent figures in the AI field: Prof Yoshua Bengio, Dr Bill Dally, Dr Geoffrey Hinton, Prof John Hopfield, Jensen Huang, and Dr Yann LeCun. Collectively, these folks have smartly guided billions of dollars in advances to creating and applying AI technologies. Prof Bengio, Dr. Hinton and Dr. LeCun are sometimes referred to as the “Godfathers of AI.” They were jointly awarded the 2018 Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize in Computing, for their revolutionary advances to the field.
Fei-Fei Li, for her part, professed her pride in being the only woman in this illustrious company. “I’m proudly and unapologetically different,” she said, calling for more diversity in the technology and innovation sectors. As a professor and researcher at Stanford University, she advocates for a more inclusive approach to artificial intelligence development, among other topics. Her advocacy has been steadfast, fierce, and tireless.
Li’s view of AI differs from some of her peers. Dr. Geoff Hinton, a father of AI, has been sounding the alarm over technology’s ability to potentially create an “extinction-level threat.” Conversely, Dr. Yann LeCun calls these doomsday predictions alarmist, and Li takes a decidedly more realist approach. She says the fact that scientists can have opposing opinions on AI’s risks is a good thing for the conversation, and an important one.
“The disagreement amongst scientists is healthy,” she remarked, underscoring her belief that diverse opinions can lead to more robust discussions and solutions in the field.
AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, who emigrated from China to the U.S. as a teenager. Her journey is a testament to her commitment to leveraging technology to improve people’s lives. Her work is guided by a fundamental belief that AI should be used ethically, and she adamantly promotes this principle. She argues that it should improve human life — not endanger or usurp it. “We need to open the floodgate of data-driven AI,” she noted, highlighting her vision for responsible AI development.
The 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering will recognize Li as well as her compatriots in innovation. Their innovative advancements in AI have redefined industries and improved the quality of life for millions worldwide. With this moment finally upon us, it’s hard not to feel Li’s excitement through the screen. She stands as testament to one woman’s extraordinary achievement in engineering. Most importantly, she inspires the next generation of women technologists.