Scale AI

History

2023: Dismissal of 20% of employees

On January 9, 2023, Scale AI, a developer of training tools for artificial intelligence systems like, OpenAI ChatGPT announced a staff reduction. Every fifth employee will lose their job.

Scale AI of San Francisco was founded in 2016. It has received financial support from a number of investors, including Tiger Global, Coatue Management and Founders Fund. The market value of the startup is estimated at $7.3 billion. Scale AI provides customers with large amounts of marked-up data that are needed to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.

The downsizing was announced by Scale AI founder and CEO Alexander Wang. Over the years, he said, interest in AI has skyrocketed among companies and government organizations. As a result, it was decided to expand the number of Scale AI employees. However, Wang says, over the past quarters, the macro environment has changed dramatically, and in many segments of the IT market there has been a decline. This gave rise to the need to change the structure of the company.

Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang

Given the uncertainty that has affected many of the industries in which we operate, it has become clear that we need to reorient our investments to accommodate this new environment. Today I have to announce the hardest change I've ever had to make at Scale. I made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by 20%, which means saying goodbye to many talented workers. I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us to this, "wrote Alexander Wang.

Dismissed employees will receive severance pay in the amount of salaries for at least eight labor weeks. In addition, the cash equivalent of existing health insurance premiums for three months (for U.S. residents) will be paid. Scale AI will help former workers find employment in a new location and provide immigration support.^[1]

Notes