AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li has pushed back against “doomsday” narratives surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), echoing recent skepticism voiced by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over catastrophic predictions about the technology’s future. Speaking on an industry panel alongside fellow AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton, Li, who is often called the “godmother of AI”, criticised both apocalyptic fear-mongering and overly idealistic optimism, calling for a balanced, practical perspective on technology adoption.“Every tool is a double-edged sword,” said Li, who serves as co-founder and CEO of spatial intelligence startup World Labs, adding, “AI is such a powerful tool. If not wielded in the right way, it will bring harm to our work and our life.”
Rebutting the ‘end of humanity’ narrative
Li’s comments align with a sharp public rebuke delivered by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang against apocalyptic warnings surrounding artificial intelligence. In a recent interview with Axios, Huang dismissed claims that AI development will trigger civilisation-ending catastrophes or wipe out half of the workforce, arguing that scare tactics pose a far greater threat to economic growth than the technology itself.“The fact that this is going to be the end of humanity – it’s complete nonsense. The fact that this is going to destroy half of the American jobs is complete nonsense,” Huang said. Huang warned that overreacting to hypothetical extinction scenarios risks suffocating practical innovation across medical research, enterprise automation, and scientific discovery.Huang and Li’s measured stance stands in sharp contrast to warnings issued by other prominent tech executives and AI pioneers.Sam Altman (OpenAI) previously warned that unchecked AI could lead to severe global risks and co-signed public declarations urging leaders to treat AI extinction risks as a top priority. Dario Amodei (Anthropic) has repeatedly cautioned that rapid model training trajectories could cause mass job displacement and catastrophic safety breaches.Similarly, Elon Musk has repeatedly called for regulatory oversight and pauses on unchecked frontier model deployments, describing superintelligence as a major existential threat.
