EP 23: Alex Wang of Scale AI on state of AI, startup building, AI in defense + ethics and learning to think

Alexandr Wang is the founder and CEO of Scale AI. Alex is a 25 year old dropout from MIT, and is the youngest self made billionaire. Scale AI is the data platform for AI, providing high quality training data for leading machine learning teams.

In this episode we talked about Alex's background and upbringing, how he stumbled onto the idea for Scale while building a camera in his refrigerator, the state of artificial intelligence, YCombinator (YC) program, department of defense and AI contracts, US vs China, use cases for artificial intelligence, how to solve for attribution and monetization for artists' IP in the world of AI, advice for founders. how to develop active thinking, company building and culture building and much more!

On Alexandr Wang
Twitter
Scale.ai

Timestamps

00:40 - Alexandr Wang intro
1:40 - Alex’s upbringing
3:45 - Camera in the refrigerator, starting Scale.ai
08:00 - Going to YC, early stages
12:20 - YC Demo Day and after
16:20 - What does Scale do?
17:40 - State of AI in national defense
22:20 - US vs China, state of AI
29:10 - State of AI and generative AI
41:00 - Where is the moat? Models vs app layer
46:00 - AI for content creation
49:20 - Attribution and monetization for artists’ IP in the world of AI.
54:30 - AI ethics
1:00:00 - Weekly routine
1:03:00 - Power of betting on unknown unknowns
1:07:00 - Learning mindset and active vs lazy thinking