OpenAI Phases Out Work with Scale AI Following Startup’s Meta Deal

OpenAI has decided to wind down the data labeling work it’s doing with Scale AI following a $14.3 billion investment Meta Platforms made into the startup, whose CEO Alexandr Wang will join the social media giant, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed.

Scale accounts for a small fraction of OpenAI’s overall data work, as OpenAI had decided in recent months that it needed more data expertise than Scale was able to provide, the spokesperson said. A spokesperson from Scale declined to comment.

However, the decision represents an about-face from recent public comments by OpenAI executives. Right after Meta’s investment was announced, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar suggested that the company would continue working with Scale. “We don’t want to ice the ecosystem because acquisitions are going to happen,” Friar said at the VivaTech conference in Paris last week.

OpenAI has used an increasing number of vendors for its data labeling work, such as Mercor, a recruiting firm that OpenAI uses to find and hire its own data annotators. Bloomberg first reported on OpenAI’s decision to phase out Scale.