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Scale AI Will Get $10B Boost from Meta for Training
Meta has always been in the headlines, either for introducing updates or investing in startups to enhance its management and current features. This time, it has come to light and is in talks to make a massive investment of $10 billion in scale AI.
Summary:
1. Meta is set to invest $10 billion in scale AI, aiming to enhance its management and current features.
2. Scale AI, a startup that has been a part of the AI data market, has evolved from labeling photos of cars to analyzing and curating large language models for chatbots like ChatGPT.
3. The US Department of Labor has recently investigated the company’s compliance with fair labor rules.
The goal of this investment is to introduce modern training features and to make it efficient and effective. These are those startups that lead the AI data market.
According to the latest AI tech news, the startup was valued at $14 billion earlier in 2024 as part of a funding round including investors such as Meta.
What is Scale AI?
The ascent of Scale AI is like OpenAI’s in many aspects. Both firms were started over a decade ago, betting that the industry was on the verge of what Wang called an “inflection point of AI.” Their CEOs, who are friends and have lived together for a certain period, are both skilled networkers and have represented the AI sector in Congress. OpenAI has also received an 11-figure investment from a prominent technology corporation.
Scale’s evolution has both shaped and been shaped by the AI boom that OpenAI unleashed. Scale’s early focus was on labelling photos of autos, traffic lights, and street signs to help train self-driving car models.
However, it has since helped to analyze and curate the huge volumes of text data required to create the so-called large language models that control chatbots such as ChatGPT. These models train by identifying patterns in the data and their labels.
Also Read: AI Boost to Transform Amazon in Logistics and Delivery
That work has occasionally turned Scale AI into a lightning rod for complaints about the invisible labor in nations that foster AI development, including Kenya and the Philippines.
Scale has come under criticism for depending on thousands of contractors in other countries who were paid a pittance to sift through massive amounts of web material, with some claiming they have experienced psychological damage because of the stuff they were required to analyze.
In a 2019 interview with some media sources, Wang claimed that the company’s contract workers earn “good” salary – “in the 60th to 70th percentile of wages in their geography.”
Based on this latest AI tech news, Scale AI spokesperson Joe Osborne said the US Department of Labor recently concluded an inquiry into the company’s compliance with fair labor rules.
Scale’s business has evolved. More technology companies are experimenting with using artificial, AI-generated data to train AI systems, which might reduce the need for some of the services Scale previously provided. However, prominent AI labs are also battling to obtain enough high-quality training data to develop increasingly advanced AI systems capable of doing complicated tasks on par with, or better than, humans.
To accommodate that demand, Scale has increasingly relied on higher-paid contractors with PhD degrees to build AI systems. These specialists take part in a process called reinforcement learning, which promotes accurate replies and punishes wrong responses.
Scale experts are tasked with generating difficult issues – effectively tests – for the models to answer, according to a person familiar with the topic who asked not to be identified because the information is confidential.
In early 2025, 12% of the company’s pool who work on the process of optimising these models hold a PhD in subjects like molecular biology, and more than 40% had a master’s degree, law degree, or MBA in their profession, according to that anonymous person.
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