2 things world’s youngest self-made billionaire Alexandr Wang never delegates to AI

Wang, 28, did not entrust AI with hiring and instead vetted every hire at Scale AI, one of the leading data labeling companies in tech, he said in a podcast episode produce by venture firm Y Combinator, as reported by Business Insider.

The podcast was recorded prior to Facebook-owner Meta’s announcement earlier this month of acquiring a 49% stake in Scale AI for nearly $15 billion, valuing the company at $29 billion – twice its valuation from the previous year. CEO Alexandr Wang will join Meta to play a prominent role in its AI strategy.

Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang poses for photos at the company's office in San Francisco, May 15, 2023. Photo by AP

"I still review every hire at the company," Wang said on the podcast. "We have this process where I approve or reject literally every single hire at the company."

Wang noted he can easily spot when someone is merely "phoning it in" compared to those for whom the work holds deep significance.

He described top performers as those who treat their work as "so incredibly monumental."

"It’s so important to them that they do great work, and it sort of eats at them when they don’t do great work," he added.

This level of dedication, Wang said, is a key indicator of success at Scale AI.

The second thing he never delegated to AI was reviewing all data sent to partner companies. He reviewed all of them personally as a final quality control checkpoint.

"What your customers feel, and when your customers are happy and sad, it really gets to you," he said.

One of Scale AI’s core principles, as articulated by Wang, is "quality is fractal," meaning high standards must permeate the entire organization, starting from leadership.

"When people realize their manager or their manager’s manager or their director don’t really care, that removes the deep desire to need to care," he explained.

Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of accurately labeled data, which is pivotal for training sophisticated tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to Reuters.

Wang, the co-founder, has steered the company to provide data labeling services across the buzzy tech sectors of the moment, from autonomous vehicles several years ago to generative AI today.

He has a net worth of $3.6 billion as of Tuesday, according to Forbes.