Fei-Fei Li: Start an AI Project With a Human Need
You want to use AI for a club, a small business or your own learning.
Choose, practice, reflectA practical lesson
The Lesson
You want to use AI for a club, a small business or your own learning. Before comparing tools, identify the person and task you hope to help. A useful project begins with an actual need you can describe.
In an available excerpt from The Worlds I See, Fei-Fei Li argues for including positive effects on people and communities in how AI success is understood. Her Stanford profile describes her work in AI and human-centered technology. Stanford official profile. The Worlds I See, publisher page and excerpt.
The need should remain understandable without the word AI. “Help volunteers find the current orientation instructions” is clearer than “build an intelligent volunteer experience.” The first description gives you something to investigate and a way to evaluate a small attempt.
An AI component may not be necessary. A clear document or better search could solve the problem. If you try an AI tool, keep people able to inspect the result and choose another route. For an initial experiment, use public or invented sample material rather than private information about club members.
Reflection
- Who would use this, and for what task?
- What makes the task difficult today?
- How would someone check or correct the result?
Practice
This is an original SelfGrowthVideos exercise inspired by the ideas above.
- Write a one-sentence human need and ask a potential user whether it matches their experience.
- Describe the current non-AI way of completing the task.
- Define one small test using harmless sample material, with a person checking the result.
- Decide what would count as useful: clearer instructions, fewer missing steps or easier access. Compare the test with the simpler option.
For volunteer orientation, start with a short, accurate document answering common questions. You might then test whether a tool can summarize that public document without dropping important instructions. Keep the original visible and do not let a generated answer invent requirements.
Review
Review usefulness, errors and the effort needed to check the output. Did the tool improve the task enough to justify using it? Ask the user what was confusing. Keep the simpler approach if it serves people better.
Go Deeper
Explore the Fei-Fei Li teacher profile and the Entrepreneurship learning hub. Choose one related idea to try before collecting more material.