Outlier ai - Meta x Scale AI

 🧠 Meta × Scale AI — the quiet merger of data and power

In June 2025, Meta announced an investment of US$ 14.3 billion to acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI.

Formally, Scale AI remains independent, yet the commercial ties are now “substantially expanded.”

As part of the deal, Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI, joined Meta to lead its new Superintelligence Lab — while still holding a board seat at Scale.

⚠️ What this means

This isn’t just a business move.

It’s a structural shift in who owns and governs the training data behind artificial intelligence.

Insiders report that Meta researchers have questioned the quality of Scale’s labeled data — even while the acquisition was underway.

At the same time, several of Scale’s former clients, including Meta’s competitors, have reduced or ended their contracts, citing conflicts of interest.

🌐 Why it matters

When data vendors become subsidiaries of tech giants, the ecosystem that feeds AI narrows.

Transparency fades.

And the same handful of corporations end up controlling both the models and the material that trains them.

This merger doesn’t just reshape the AI market  it reshapes the boundaries between knowledge, ownership, and accountability.

> The age of open data is ending.

What begins now is the era of curated intelligence — owned, filtered, and aligned.

Categorie: AI-ethiek, Digitale integriteit, Juridische