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Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

nytimes.com

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Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#151

Post by DebtDeflation »

paxys wrote: post #110
krosaen wrote: post #92

Anyone know what scale does these days beyond labeling tools that would make them this interesting to Meta? Data labeling tools seem more of a traditional software application and not much to do with AI models themselves that would be somewhat easily replicated, but guessing my impression is out of date. Also now apparently their CEO is leaving [1], so the idea that they were super impressed with him doesn't seem to…

I doubt Scale is interesting by itself. This is all about Alexandr Wang. Guy is in his mid 20s and has somehow worked his way up in Silicon Valley to the same stature as CEOs of multi trillion dollar companies. Got a front row seat at Trump's inaugration. Advises the DoD. Routinely rubs shoulders with world leaders. I can't say whether there's actual substance or not, by clearly Zuck sees something in him (probably a…

It's a wild story for sure. Dropped out of MIT after freshman year and starts Scale to do data labeling. Three years later Scale has a $1B valuation and two years after that Wang is the world's youngest billionaire. Nine years after Scale's founding they're still doing less than $1B in annual revenue. Yet Meta is doing a $14B acquihire. There's definitely more than meets the eye. I suspect it involves multiple world governments including the US.

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#153

Post by sumtechguy »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #134
rybosome wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scale has also built massive amounts of proprietary datasets that they license to the big players in training. Meta, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. all use Scale data in training. So, the play I’m guessing is to shut that tap off for everyone else now, and double down on using Scale to generate more proprietary datasets.

Isn’t this monopolistic?

yes probably. but it already is. there is also an assumption that meta would turn it off. not saying they will or will not just that there an assumption here.

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#154

Post by laborcontract »

imiric wrote: post #149
laborcontract wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been all for it, look at my comment elsewhere in this thread. For me this is a huge mistake of a transaction that's neither accretive financially nor talent-wise. This isn't the Instagram or Whatsapp transaction. Scale's been exclusively in the data labeling space. Let's put this into perspective. OpenAI bought Jony Ive for about $5bln. Meta spent 3x that on Wang.

I'm not familiar with Scale, but data labeling can make or break a ML model. So if Scale is good at this, the $14B investment will pay itself off in no time.

There was quite loud reporting earlier this (or last?) year that Scale's data was so poor that it led to a great deal of setbacks, scrambling, and friction between the two companies. That reporting was at the top of my mind when I read this news, so I was even more baffled.

Imagine being the people at Meta who've had to deal with Scale now seeing Mark buy Scale's CEO for $14bln.

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#155

Post by motoxpro »

akudha wrote: post #84
paxys wrote: post #79

Spending $15B to hire a 28 year old to build you some AI is certainly a move. You can call Zuck many things, but "afraid to take risks" isn't one of them.

What is the big risk here? He has the cash to burn and he has full control of his position. Nothing will happen to him if he wastes a few Billions. He is not some poor single mom who has to decide between fixing her car and paying for kid’s Christmas presents

What a weird way to frame a business decision.

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#156

Post by edmundsauto »

ml-anon wrote: post #90
qoez wrote: post #19

OpenAI uses scale via eg data made by humans through outlier. Part of this move could probably be seen as starving competition from data as much as buying talent at scale.

Every frontier lab has moved (or is moving) away from scale to other vendors/platforms/bespoke solutions.

How do you know this?

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#157

Post by tyre »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #151
paxys wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt Scale is interesting by itself. This is all about Alexandr Wang. Guy is in his mid 20s and has somehow worked his way up in Silicon Valley to the same stature as CEOs of multi trillion dollar companies. Got a front row seat at Trump's inaugration. Advises the DoD. Routinely rubs shoulders with world leaders. I can't say whether there's actual substance or not, by clearly Zuck sees something in him (probably a…

It's a wild story for sure. Dropped out of MIT after freshman year and starts Scale to do data labeling. Three years later Scale has a $1B valuation and two years after that Wang is the world's youngest billionaire. Nine years after Scale's founding they're still doing less than $1B in annual revenue. Yet Meta is doing a $14B acquihire. There's definitely more than meets the eye. I suspect it involves multiple world…

> Dropped out of MIT after freshman year and starts Scale to do data labeling

I was in their YC batch, so two notes:

1. He didn't start it himself 2. They weren't doing data labeling when they entered YC. They pivoted to this.

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#158

Post by tzury »

This is as bold as Instagram and WhatsApp were at the time, typical Zuck move, most likely a successful story, perhaps bigger than the other two.

See, when he paid $1 billion in 2012 for a 7 employees company, everybody thought it is the biggest mistake he made.

Who he paid $21.8 billion in 2014 for 55 employees size messaging company, people said similar things, but both turned out to be a great success in market dominance.

Scale serves the top tier AI companies, and Alexandr is a prodigy by all means, so hell ye.

Unlike many other cases where M&A simply killed the companies / product, here it is going to be power multiplier, Meta's data to scale and back, will make scale better and meta's AI better.

Re: Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to kick-start superintelligence lab

#160

Post by dghlsakjg »

RankingMember wrote: post #138
mlinhares wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people understand that once you're a billionaire with full ownership of your business and no risk of being ousted, making or losing billions is irrelevant.

Billionaires don't stop caring about looking like dumbasses just because they're extremely wealthy.

If this is true, then evidence indicates that I have a different definition of what "looking like a dumbass" means than many of our billionaires.
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