Former Head of Google Cloud, Fei-Fei Li Joins Twitter as Non-Independent Director

Fake news is not only rampant on Facebook, these days Twitter has become a big platform for spreading news with little or no authenticity. Artificial Intelligence is one technology that the Twitter team wants to leverage more to tamp down on the spread, hence, Dr Fei-Fei Li has been added to Twitter’s Board of Directors.

Li will function as an Independent Director, bringing her deep knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and her experience with technology to help improve the Twitter platform.

Dr Li’s Google experience

Fei-Fei Li worked at Google as Vice-President of Google Cloud from January 2017 to October 2018. She oversaw the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research and development efforts at Google Cloud.

Her responsibilities at Google extended to overseeing basic science AI research, all Google Cloud’s AI/ML products and engineering efforts, university relations, and Google AI China Center.

Fei-Fei Li had to leave Google when controversy arose over Project Maven, an AI project that was being developed for the Pentagon. The controversy led to about 12 staff quitting Google. Eventually, Google stopped working on the project.

The details of Project Maven were leaked out through emails and the controversy centred around the fact that it was not in line with ethical use.

According to the Pentagon, the project aimed to develop and integrate “computer-vision algorithms needed to help military and civilian analysts encumbered by the sheer volume of full-motion video data that DoD collects every day in support of counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism operations”, among its objectives. 

Li was an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois from 2005 to 2006, and Assistant Professor at Princeton University from 2006 to 2009. She joined Stanford University as a Professor in 2009 and became the Director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab in 2014.

In 2018, she became the Co-Director of the Human-centered AI Institute in Stanford. In March 2017, she co-founded AI4ALL, a non-profit organization that is focused on educating the next technologists, thinkers and leaders in the Artificial Intelligence field. She is the chairperson of the Board of AI4ALL.

She still functions as a Professor at Stanford University and carries out laboratory research in areas including Computer Vision, Machine Learning, AI, Computational Neuroscience, and Cognitive Neuroscience. Her knowledge of technology and extensive work with AI will contribute to the Twitter team and help Twitter become more intelligent as a platform.