First interview with Scale AI’s CEO: $14B Meta deal, what’s working in enterprise AI, and what frontier labs are building next | Jason Droege

In this interview, Lenny interviews Jason Droege, the new CEO of Scale AI, about the evolution of AI models and the role of data labeling and training. They discuss the shift towards expert data labeling, where professionals with advanced degrees contribute their expertise to improve AI models. Jason shares insights into how Scale AI finds and retains these experts, the importance of reinforcement learning environments, and the move from models knowing things to models doing things. He also touches on the challenges enterprises face in adopting AI, the importance of understanding customer incentives, and product lessons from his experience building Uber Eats. The conversation also explores the future of AI, the need for human involvement in AI development, and Jason's approach to hiring and building teams.