How Facebook parent Meta's investment in Scale AI may be a ‘problem' for the startup's employees
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Scale AI, is cutting 200 full-time employees, which represents 14% of the company's global workforce, a report claims. Apart from this, the company is also ending contracts with 500 contractors. This decision comes weeks after
Meta
invested $14.3 billion in the company and hired its founder, Alexandr Wang. Before these reductions, Scale AI had a global workforce of 1,400 people. In a statement to CNBC, Scale AI spokesperson
Joe Osborne
confirmed the layoffs and noted that affected employees have been provided severance packages.
'We're streamlining our data business to help us move faster and deliver even better data solutions to our GenAI customers. We also plan to make significant investments and hiring across our enterprise and government AI businesses,'
Osborne told CNBC.
Recently, Meta has been engaged in a major AI hiring effort to improve its competitive position against rivals like OpenAI and Google. As part of this push, Meta CEO
Mark Zuckerberg
selected Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to serve as Meta's chief AI officer, who is set to oversee the new Meta Superintelligence Labs organisation. A small number of Scale AI employees have also joined Meta during this period.
What Scale AI's interim CEO Jason Droege said about the job cuts
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Could Dubai Be the Smartest Move for Property Investors?
Binghatti Developers FZE
Contact Us
Undo
In a recent memo to employees (seen by CNBC), Scale AI's interim CEO Jason Droege, who stepped in for Wang, admitted that the startup expanded its generative AI capabilities
'too quickly'
and built up
'excessive bureaucracy.'
He also noted that Scale AI is still a well-resourced and well-funded company despite the job cuts.
'These changes will make us more nimble, enabling us to react more quickly to shifts in the market and customer needs. This structure will allow us to better serve the customers we have today and win back customers that have slowed down work with us,'
Droege wrote in the memo.
Droege also noted that Scale AI plans to
'significantly increase headcount'
in the second half of the year across its app business units, including the enterprise, public sector, and international public sector divisions.
'I want to extend our deepest gratitude for their valuable contributions and dedication to our company,' referring to the employees who are being laid off Droege said in the memo.
AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
21 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Meta hires two Apple AI researchers for Superintelligence push: Report
Meta Platforms has hired Apple artificial intelligence researchers Mark Lee and Tom Gunter for its Superintelligence Labs team, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, as it intensifies its pursuit for top AI talent. The social media giant is among several technology companies that have struck high-profile deals and doled out multi-million-dollar pay packages to fast-track development of machines that could surpass human intelligence. Lee recently left Apple and has started at Meta, while Gunter is set to join soon, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Their exit follows Ruoming Pang, who previously left Apple for a multi-million-dollar compensation package at Meta, according to a media report earlier this month. Lee and Gunter both worked closely with Pang, the Bloomberg report said on Thursday. Pang was the head of Apple's Foundation Models team and responsible for advanced AI features, sources have told Reuters. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the report, while Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that his social media platform would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centres. In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent raid in the pursuit to create a division called Superintelligence Labs.
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Meta Hires Two Key Apple AI Experts After Poaching Their Boss
Meta Platforms Inc. hired a pair of key artificial intelligence researchers who worked at Apple Inc., shortly after poaching their former boss from the iPhone maker. The social networking giant hired Mark Lee and Tom Gunter for its Superintelligence Labs team, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Lee has started at Meta after leaving Apple in recent days, while Gunter will begin work in the near future, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the hires haven't been announced. The moves are part of a scramble for AI talent across the tech industry. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been especially aggressive in its recruiting. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has made artificial intelligence the company's top priority, spending heavily on workers and data centers to try and keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Google. Gunter left Apple last month, Bloomberg News reported at the time, and both he and Lee worked closely with Ruoming Pang, the chief of Apple's large language models team who Meta poached earlier this month. To secure Pang, Meta offered a multiyear compensation package worth well over $200 million, Bloomberg reported. Lee was known as Pang's first hire at Apple, while Gunter, who was a distinguished engineer at Apple, was regarded as one of the group's most senior employees. Gunter started at a different AI company after leaving Apple and departed in recent days. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, while Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. The latest hires reflect the continuing turmoil at the Apple Foundation Models team, or AFM, which develops the technology underpinning generative AI. The company's top AI executives have been considering using outside models to power the Siri voice assistant and other Apple Intelligence features, clouding the team's future. The group reports to research head Daphne Luong, a top deputy to AI Senior Vice President John Giannandrea. They're evaluating strategy changes alongside Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi, the software executives now in charge of Siri. The idea would be to rely on OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC's Claude as the foundation for Apple Intelligence beginning next year. In order to bring long-promised Siri features to market, including the ability to tap into personal data to fulfill queries, Apple is simultaneously developing versions with both its own models and third-party technology. Before the new voice assistant can launch next spring, the company will have to decide on which underlying software to use. Meta has capitalised on this uncertainty with generous job offers. In many cases, Meta is promising compensation that is several multiples higher than what Apple pays its AFM engineers. In order to prevent more departures, Apple has begun offering some engineers in the group - which includes 100 or so people - raises to stay put. Still, those increases are a far cry from Meta's offers. Gunter, for instance, is joining a club of several other AI experts who are receiving multiyear packages worth more than $100 million. Earlier this week, Zuckerberg posted on Threads that Meta would "invest hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence," a reference to the concept of an advanced form of AI that can complete tasks better than humans. Some of the company's top AI hires have been assigned desks near Zuckerberg at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, allowing for easier collaboration. "I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry," he posted on Threads.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business Standard
Meta hires two key Apple AI researchers after poaching their boss
The moves are part of a scramble for AI talent across the tech industry. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been especially aggressive in its recruiting Bloomberg By Mark Gurman and Kurt Wagner Meta Platforms Inc. hired a pair of key artificial intelligence researchers who worked at Apple Inc., shortly after poaching their former boss from the iPhone maker. The social networking giant hired Mark Lee and Tom Gunter for its Superintelligence Labs team, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Lee has started at Meta after leaving Apple in recent days, while Gunter will begin work in the near future, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the hires haven't been announced. The moves are part of a scramble for AI talent across the tech industry. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been especially aggressive in its recruiting. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has made artificial intelligence the company's top priority, spending heavily on workers and data centers to try and keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Google. Gunter left Apple last month, Bloomberg News reported at the time, and both he and Lee worked closely with Ruoming Pang, the chief of Apple's large language models team who Meta poached earlier this month. To secure Pang, Meta offered a multiyear compensation package worth well over $200 million, Bloomberg reported. Lee was known as Pang's first hire at Apple, while Gunter, who was a distinguished engineer at Apple, was regarded as one of the group's most senior employees. Gunter started at a different AI company after leaving Apple and departed in recent days. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, while Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. The latest hires reflect the continuing turmoil at the Apple Foundation Models team, or AFM, which develops the technology underpinning generative AI. The company's top AI executives have been considering using outside models to power the Siri voice assistant and other Apple Intelligence features, clouding the team's future. The group reports to research head Daphne Luong, a top deputy to AI Senior Vice President John Giannandrea. They're evaluating strategy changes alongside Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi, the software executives now in charge of Siri. The idea would be to rely on OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC's Claude as the foundation for Apple Intelligence beginning next year. In order to bring long-promised Siri features to market, including the ability to tap into personal data to fulfill queries, Apple is simultaneously developing versions with both its own models and third-party technology. Before the new voice assistant can launch next spring, the company will have to decide on which underlying software to use. Meta has capitalized on this uncertainty with generous job offers. In many cases, Meta is promising compensation that is several multiples higher than what Apple pays its AFM engineers. In order to prevent more departures, Apple has begun offering some engineers in the group — which includes 100 or so people — raises to stay put. Still, those increases are a far cry from Meta's offers. Gunter, for instance, is joining a club of several other AI experts who are receiving multiyear packages worth more than $100 million. Earlier this week, Zuckerberg posted on Threads that Meta would 'invest hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence,' a reference to the concept of an advanced form of AI that can complete tasks better than humans. Some of the company's top AI hires have been assigned desks near Zuckerberg at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, allowing for easier collaboration. 'I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry,' he posted on Threads.
