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Text | Yihualu
Editor|Yihualu
preface
"If I win the Nobel Prize, I hope to accept it as a Chinese."
This is what Li Feifei, a Chinese-American female scientist, said to the media in 2001, when Li Feifei was just an ordinary student.
After that, Li Feifei became the vice president of Google with her talents, shining in the field of artificial intelligence, as early as 2009, Li Feifei began to step into this relatively unpopular field to study hard.
Now she's both a professor at Stanford and a dishwashing worker at a 17-year-old hotel.
It is also very valuable that this Chinese-American born in China can say this, 20 years have passed, can she still maintain this original intention?
Science knows no borders
As a Chinese-American, Li Feifei is often asked: "Do you think you are Chinese or American?" ”
Li Feifei told the reporter in front of him without hesitation: "Of course I am a Chinese, I love my motherland." If I win a Nobel Prize one day, I hope I accept it as a Chinese. ”
After 20 years, Li Feifei, who was only 33 years old, was successfully elected as a member of the American Academy of Engineering, and when Li Feifei learned of the selection, he was not complacent, but hoped that people could improve current medical technology through artificial intelligence and better help doctors and patients.
Prior to that, Li Feifei served as a vice president of Google at the invitation of others and served as Google's chief scientist. And Google AI was established in China, providing a stage for Chinese scientists to march to the world and successfully opening up the scientific field of Chinese intelligence.
Li's apprentice was a Tesla executive, but left Tesla shortly after.
But in fact, Li Feifei's so-called efforts are traceable, and the field of artificial intelligence is not as simple as we think, especially as a Chinese woman.
Li Feifei is a relatively common name in China, but behind her lies countless bitter histories.
The American dream of the Kochi family
Li Feifei was born in Beijing and later went to school in Chengdu, her parents are high-level intellectuals, she also perfectly inherited the characteristics of her parents' high intelligence, and her parents were surprised by her amazing talent from an early age.
Therefore, her parents will also take her to various exhibitions, and her parents will respect her ideas, and she has been indoctrinated since childhood that she can do what she wants.
With excellent grades, she was admitted to the seventh middle school of Sichuan Key Middle School, but the turning point was here.
Li Feifei's father was an engineer and his mother was a teacher, and when he was 12 years old, his father had already gone to the United States to pursue his dream, and after Li Feifei finished junior high school, he and his mother also went to the United States to reunite with his father, so the family moved to the United States.
Li Feifei, who was only 16 years old, felt overwhelmed by the unfamiliar environment, and the first problem he faced was language communication.
Although his parents were intellectuals, they were not fully proficient in English. My father had to work as a simple repair, and my mother gave up her job as a teacher to become a cashier in a supermarket.
But this can only maintain the daily expenses of the family, and the sensible Li Feifei also chooses to work part-time to earn her own tuition in her spare time, she not only helps people walk their dogs, clean doors, but also works as a waiter in restaurants every day after class, sleeping only two or three hours a day.
Not only language but also living habits, Li Feifei is also extremely uncomfortable, although he can stay with his parents, but the pressure of life will overwhelm people, the owner of the restaurant did not want this foreign girl at first, but Li Feifei's work attitude deeply infected her, so she stayed.
At this time, she only had one thought in her mind that she wanted to study, and she could only start studying after the end of her part-time job every day.
The hard work paid off, Li Feifei with her talent and perseverance in learning, got a letter of acceptance from Princeton University, and even the school's full scholarship was also included in her pocket. In the local newspaper, Li Feifei's deeds were also reported.
From dry cleaner girl to Stanford professor
After entering university, she couldn't stay in school like a normal person, soaked in the library, and real life defeated her, and her stretched wallet forced her to work while studying.
But at Princeton University, he saw a new world, got excellent educational resources, spacious and bright classrooms, teachers who talked in class, and harmonious and friendly classmates, all of which Li Feifei wanted, and here she seemed to see her bright future.
A family living in a small town is still trying to live, and Li Feifei in order to make up for his next tuition fees, when a flash of inspiration appeared: Why is there no washing machine that can turn by itself? The idea planted a small seed in her heart.
So with the help of her teacher, she opened a dry cleaner in the town and handed it over to her parents to manage, so that she had time to go back to school to concentrate on studying, and whenever she was resting, Li Feifei would also come to the dry cleaner to help.
From the language barrier to being admitted to university, Li Feifei has made great efforts, and she has also said that without these experiences, she may not cherish this hard-won college life.
After a long period of study, Li Feifei graduated from Princeton University in 1999, such a high-achieving student, received olive branches from famous companies around the world, she also proved her talent, but at this time Li Feifei made an unexpected decision.
When Li Feifei was in graduate school, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, she went to her dry cleaner after school, and then went home to take care of her mother, so she began a life on the three-point line.
After finishing graduate school and her mother's condition stabilizing a bit, Li Feifei decided to return to China to participate in the study of Tibetan medicine, and it was her experience that laid the groundwork for future research.
Tibetan medicine in Li Feifei's view is another discipline, unrelated to his own major, if you want to intersperse research must start all over again, although these are two unrelated majors, and the difficulty is also very large, but the combination of medicine and physics has become one of the difficulties that Li Feifei overcomes.
As we all know, the Tibetan region has a high altitude and harsh environment, and she overcame many difficulties to study Tibetan medicine, and during this one-year study period, she gained new knowledge, gained knowledge beyond her own cognition, learned ancient techniques, and studied endangered knowledge.
Li Feifei's gains in Tibet were not small, and after returning to the United States, he also received a doctorate, so he changed his research direction and turned his goal to the research direction of combining artificial intelligence and computer nerves to try to integrate.
Li Feifei, who was extremely sought-after, chose to return to universities after getting a doctorate, choosing the direction of artificial intelligence with less research fields, artificial intelligence was a field that was not favored by all scholars at that time, and even some people advised her to give up, but Li Feifei resolutely set this research direction.
But Li Feifei did not flinch, downloading a large number of pictures from the Internet for reference, hoping that the robot could accurately identify that the things she studied were like her children.
At that time, the world's computers were not particularly accurate to identify, artificial intelligence simply helped computers understand the world.
In 2007, Li Feifei and the Chinese developed ImageNet also achieved breakthrough success, but they did not want to monopolize the results, chose to release the ImageNet program to the world, anyone can use the code to make different changes, since then known as the "AI goddess".
She gradually led more scholars into the industry, and slowly the technology became more and more mature, until in 2016, Li Feifei chose to enter Stanford University for a two-year further study.
Just two years later, Google launched a WeChat program called "Guess the Picture Little Song", which is a small game based on the intersection of users and artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence will constantly guess based on the user's different hand-drawings, which is exactly the use of the ImageNet program studied by Li Feifei. Since then, Li Feifei's name has been attached to AI.
Some people think that she is the originator of the AI community, but artificial intelligence was proposed as early as 1950, and Li Feifei just stuck to this path to the end.
Since the popularity of mini programs, capitalists have turned their attention to artificial intelligence, but the current technology is not yet mature, Li Feifei is also sought after by them, but at this time she wants to try to combine artificial intelligence with other industries.
She has also said that the harm caused by artificial intelligence to society cannot be ignored, which just shows her foresight.
In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and became a member of the Hospital Academy in the same year because of her research in medicine.
Li Feifei has not forgotten his motherland, from a migrant worker who left his homeland to a scientist in the field of artificial intelligence.
epilogue
When Li Feifei was Google's chief scientist, he said at the conference:
"We will work to lower the barrier to entry for the use of AI. Reduce difficulties while ensuring its ability. Let as many users, developers, and enterprises as possible enjoy the convenience of AI, and realize that AI will exert its extraordinary influence in the future. ”
The artificial intelligence that Li Feifei insisted on has become more and more mature by now, but it is inevitable that some people will use technology to do some bad things.
As a young woman, Li Feifei's achievements are also her step by step, and she has put all her efforts into the research of artificial intelligence.
Whether in life or in learning, there will be a lot of difficulties, but only a very small number of people persist, we lack the courage to face life, Li Feifei can move forward on his own firm road, only by constantly moving forward, can we reach the ideal road.
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