Meta is set to invest $15 billion to snag a 49% stake in Scale AI. The deal puts Scale CEO Alexandr Wang in charge of Meta’s new AI unit focused on “superintelligence.”
Scale AI, founded in 2016, is a major player in data annotation, supplying the human-labeled data that trains AI systems worldwide.
The deal will boost Wang’s fortune and equity for his team. For Meta, it’s a push to reboot its slowing AI efforts and take on OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic head-on. 
But Scale’s contractors—earning just a few dollars daily via RemoTasks, a Scale subsidiary—won’t see any upside.
University of Essex senior lecturer Callum Cant says Scale annotators probably won’t benefit at all.
“I expect few if any Scale annotators will see any upside at all,” Cant said.
“It would be very surprising to see some kind of feed-through. Most of these people don’t have a stake in ownership of the company.”
A recent Oxford University report called out RemoTasks for failing on fair pay, contracts, management, and worker representation.
Jonas Valente, an Oxford researcher on the report, added:
“A key part of Scale’s value lies in its data work services performed by hundreds of thousands of underpaid and poorly protected workers,” Valente said.
“The company remains far from safeguarding basic standards of fair work, despite limited efforts to improve its practices.”
Valente warned the Meta deal won’t improve conditions.
“Unfortunately, the increasing profits of many digital labor platforms and their primary companies, such as the case of Scale, do not translate into better conditions for [workers],” he said.
Scale AI declined to comment. In May, the company told TechCrunch it’s “proud of the flexible earning opportunities offered through our platforms.”
Meta’s stake raises questions about Scale’s ties to OpenAI and Google, both big clients. Meta could cut off rivals from the crucial annotated data pipeline.
Cant explained:
“By buying up access to Scale AI, could Meta deny access to that platform and that avenue for data annotation by other competitors?”
“It depends entirely on Meta’s strategy.”
If Meta does limit access, workers could face fewer gigs and lower pay in an already tough data work market.
Meta declined to comment on this story.
