Axios interview: Scale AI CEO Jason Droege pushes "reliablity" reality
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Scale AI CEO Jason Droege speaks at the Axios AI+DC summit in September. Photo: Ralph Alswang for Axios
Scale AI CEO Jason Droege tells Axios that AI is often too unreliable for mission-critical use by business, military and government.
- "The cost of mistakes in these environments can be high," Droege, 47, said in an interview from San Francisco, where Scale — which celebrated its 10th anniversary this week — is based.
Why it matters: Droege — who succeeded founder Alexandr Wang last June when the wunderkind became Meta's first chief AI officer, and Meta took a 49% stake in Scale — wants to signal that it isn't merely a data annotation company, but has long been an AI infrastructure and deployment company.
Droege unveiled his mantra for his 1,300+ employees in a memo, "The Reliability Race," being reported here for the first time.
- "Reliability at this level depends on human intelligence," he wrote. "Our forward-deployed engineers ensure reliability for customers' specific workflows and use cases."
Between the lines: Droege told Axios that he synthesized the message while talking with customers and prospects.
- He said he wants to hammer the reliability message because people "are talking about hundreds of topics around AI constantly." He added that he learned in building earlier businesses that you've "got to keep the main thing front and center constantly. And you have to talk about all of the nuances of that topic. So, everyone is focused on the thing."
- "What I'm trying to do with the memo is really focus our team on the most important thing our customers tell us," he said. "And the most important thing is making AI reliable enough so that you can see the ROI [return on investment] on the huge investment that you've made."
Customers told Droege that even when an AI product usually worked beautifully, it could also make huge mistakes, and that became a reason people didn't want to adopt the technology. "We said: OK, this is an opportunity to bridge this gap between expectations and reality," he added. "And so, that's what we've been investing in for the past few years."
- "What we hear in the industry is lots of hype, lots of talk. Then Scale will innovate and grind to get to the outcomes that the customers expect."
Asked about his hallmark as a leader, Droege told Axios: "We are in one of the most dynamic times in all of history. So becoming distracted is a certain path to failure. I think I'm really good at figuring out the two or three things that are important and just reinforcing those constantly."
