本文探讨了Meta与Scale AI之间的合作关系，以及其对Meta在人工智能领域发展的影响。Scale AI是一家专注于通过人工标注数据来训练AI模型的公司，Meta此举旨在加强其在AI模型开发方面的实力。文章分析了此次合作的背景、原因和潜在影响，包括Meta对Scale AI的依赖、Scale AI在AI模型训练中的作用，以及此次合作对Meta AI战略的意义。同时，文章也提到了Scale AI面临的挑战，以及Meta如何利用Scale AI来提升其AI模型的性能。

💡Meta与Scale AI的合作源于Meta对先进AI模型的迫切需求，特别是在Llama模型表现未达预期的情况下。Scale AI通过人工优化AI回应，为Meta提供了提升模型性能的关键技术。

🤔Scale AI在AI模型训练中扮演着重要角色，其主要业务是雇佣大量人工对数据进行标注和优化，例如通过RLHF（Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback）来改进AI模型的回答。

⚠️Meta收购Scale AI不仅仅是为了获得Scale AI创始人Alexandr Wang，更重要的是获取Scale AI在AI模型训练方面的专业知识和平台，以加速Llama模型的改进。

🧐Scale AI的成功也面临挑战，例如其人工标注平台上的参与者倾向于复制粘贴ChatGPT的回答，这影响了数据质量。Meta需要解决这些问题，才能充分发挥Scale AI的作用。

💰此次合作被一些人与Metaverse的巨额投资相提并论，Meta能否通过Scale AI提升AI排名，将是衡量此次合作是否成功的关键。

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Charles Rollet is a rockstar tech reporter who recently joined Business Insider. He's knocked out several scoops about Scale AI lately. This is the startup that Meta is investing in. Founder Alexandr Wang is also joining Meta.

If you want to understand what Mark Zuckerberg is buying, Charles's coverage is a must-read. He broke news on how Google used Scale AI to chase ChatGPT and led exclusive reporting on how big Scale AI customers are deserting the startup. There's also an astounding story on how Scale AI left sensitive data about Google, xAI, and Meta open for anyone on the web to see.

I asked Charles what he thought of this peculiar deal.

Why is Zuck paying so much?

If you want a cutting-edge AI model, one way to do that is by having humans rewrite millions of chatbot responses and do lots of other little tricks to painstakingly improve each AI answer. Our reporting shows that Scale AI specializes in this kind of work: it's what Scale AI did to help Google catch up with ChatGPT, for example. This kind of expertise is valuable for Zuck as he seeks to release new models that blow everyone away. The lukewarm reception to Llama 4 clearly got to him, and he's taking aggressive action.

What's the future of Scale AI now, and how can it help Meta and Zuck's AI ambitions? Or is this just a massive acquihire of Alexandr Wang?

It was stunning to see Google pull Scale AI projects hours after the Meta investment was announced. It's an open question whether Scale AI can regain that kind of lost revenue. But I don't think Meta will just let Scale AI peter out and die. Meta now has much more direct access to Scale AI for training its latest models. Zuck needs Llama models to be at, or very near, the top of AI benchmarks. And Scale AI has a good idea of what works and what doesn't, along with the platform to make things happen. This deal wasn't solely about hiring Wang — no offense to Alex, but there were probably cheaper ways to do that.

What has your Scale AI reporting revealed about how AI models are developed?

Training AI models requires a ton of human labor. A key way to improve models is through Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, or RLHF. Scale AI's biggest platform, Remotasks, has more than 240,000 human contributors doing this stuff. Ironically, automation is something of a problem here: It turns out that these humans often prefer to copy and paste answers from ChatGPT instead of giving genuine human feedback. We noticed many examples of humans being banned from Scale AI's platforms for doing this.

What else should BI readers know about this situation?

Zuck made a huge bet with Scale AI. People have been comparing this to the Metaverse, which burned billions and hasn't panned out yet. But if Meta starts to climb AI rankings and gets Llama models performing much better, this could be seen as a wise move — closer to Facebook buying Instagram.

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