Labor Exploitation at Scale
It’s hard to recall a faster ascent to Tech Deification than Alexandr Wang’s. Zuck just "acquired" him for $14.3B. The chorus of praise is loud, the silence on labor exploitation deafening.
Wang recognized the insatiable need for high-quality training data and built a model to provide the high-octane fuel for modern AI. He became the youngest self-made billionaire at 24.
His company, Scale AI, performs the arduous task of making Big Tech’s raw data deployment-ready. Turns out AI isn’t magic. Armies of flesh-and-blood laborers are needed to label, tag, correct errors, and sort raw data that is fed into our beloved AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Llama. This data refinement is performed by a vast global workforce, including hundreds of thousands of gig workers.
The son of Los Alamos nuclear physicists, Wang holds the highest honor of tech-bro-legend-in-the-making; he DROPPED out of an elite college. Eff off MIT, I don’t need your pedagogy. I’m 19 and need to get on with it. He founded Scale AI in 2016 with Lucy Guo, another MIT dropout, who I’ve noticed Wang doesn’t mention in his origins story. She’s been erased. The first of his many transgressions.
Wang has been on a tear, living his best life hangin’ with The Donald J, Macron, Modi, and Starmer. He’s doing the podcast circuit like mad. You want to hate him, but he has rizz. He was droll and likable on This Past Weekend with Theo Von. I wouldn’t expect Von to push on sensitive topics, but the truth is Scale AI built its meteoric rise on the backs of exploited labor.
The REAL STORY is where THERE IS NO STORY:
In August 2023, Washington Post journalists Rebecca Tan and Regine Cabato investigated Scale AI’s data-labeling platform, Remotasks, and its operations in the Philippines.
“Scale AI has paid workers at extremely low rates, routinely delayed or withheld payments, and provided few channels for workers to seek recourse. Those who complained were simply shut out of their account.”
Tan & Cabato conducted interviews of “Taskers,” the cheeky name for Scale AI gig workers, and cited the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) report. The OII rates digital work platforms on labor standards. In 2023, Scale AI/Remotasks received a score of 1 out of a possible 10 points. They failed on basic principles including paying workers on time, meeting local minimum wage, health and safety, and fairness in contracts and management.
This is where it gets complicated, so bear with me.
Remotasks is Scale AI’s global platform designed for flexible, gig-based data annotation work. If you go directly to the Remotasks website, Scale AI is never mentioned, despite the fact that Scale AI built and operates the platform. This has been the cause of great confusion. In a May 2023 CNN interview, Julia Chatterley said to Wang, “You employ a company called Remotasks.” He did NOT correct this glaring gaffe.
On Scale AI’s website, they state, “Remotasks is our global platform designed for flexible, gig-based data annotation work. It was established as a separate platform to protect customer confidentiality.” Their customers are the titans of tech: OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Meta, xAI, Tesla, Nvidia, plus the U.S. Department of Defense. But that dominance is unraveling in real time. Since Meta’s June 2025 announcement to acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI, some customers jumped ship—citing concerns over data confidentiality and strategic leakage.
As an additional layer of protection Scale AI set up a subsidiary to serve as a legal and operational shell to “engage, operate, develop and carry on business.” In the SEC Philippines filings provided by The Washington Post, Smart Ecosystems Philippines, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Smart Eco Systems, Inc. In the fine print on page 5, Scale AI is listed as “the Ultimate Parent Company.”
The decentralized and opaque labor ecosystem serves as a very convenient way for Scale AI to maintain brand image and distance itself legally and operationally from employment obligations, wage standards, and protections. It also benefits their “making the world a better place,” technogarchy customers, allowing them to ignore reported labor abuse. Not surprising considering these same companies knowingly use pirated data and abuse copyright law to avoid paying royalties to content creators. See Big Tech is Stealing Your IP.
In November of 2024, 60 Minutes aired an investigation of Scale AI’s labor practices. Astonishingly, Leslie Stahl never mentioned Alexandr Wang’s name. Whatever happened to the 60 Minutes camera crew showing up at the corporate executive’s front door?
In February 2025, Sam Blum of Inc. wrote “Scale AI Contractors Allege Wage Theft in a Letter to U.S. Senators.” This was on the eve of former Scale AI Exec Michael Kratsios’ hearing to become head of OSTP—Office of Science and Technology Policy for the president of the United States. This was one of the first mentions of Scale AI’s labor issues here in the U.S.
In March of 2025 TechCrunch’s Charles Rollet wrote about the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigating Scale AI. The investigation centered around “unpaid wages, misclassification of employees as contractors, and illegal retaliation against workers.” At the time of reporting, it was thought the DOL investigation had been active since August 2024.
Aside from Tech Crunch, Inc., SiliconANGLE, and AIbase, there was little coverage of the DOL investigation. Why would major media outlets not want to glom onto a juicy story about Scale AI’s labor violations here at home?
When the founder is a wunderkind who has moved into the highest levels of power, he becomes untouchable.
Particularly when the founder has become a celebrity and has the ear of world leaders. And there’s the small matter of serious Department of Defense (DOD) contracts that Scale AI was setting up as its labor practices were coming under fire.
The DOL abruptly dropped its investigation in May of 2025. If you didn’t hear about this shocking development, don’t feel bad; nobody else did either. TechCrunch, Inc., Yahoo Finance, and Gazetteer SF were the only news outlets I could find that covered it. We can surmise legacy media was either lazy, ignorant, or intentionally ignored a story that could tarnish the beloved Mr. Wang.
I recently spoke with a former Scale AI contractor, and my jaw was on the floor the entire time. There is so much to this story, I had a hard time figuring out where to begin. I am currently seeking any and all former or current Scale AI workers. I would love to talk with gig workers, contractors employed by staffing vendors like Upwork or even the rare W2 employees of Scale AI.
Privately held companies aren’t required to disclose employment data, but according to CNBC reporting on July 16, 2025, Scale AI cut 200 full-time employees, or 14% of its staff. “Prior to the layoffs, Scale AI had a 1,400-person global workforce. The company also ended work with 500 contractors out of thousands worldwide.”
A $29B valuation with about 1,200 direct employees is remarkable, but it’s safe to infer that contract workers far outnumber Scale AI employees. Current lawsuits against Scale AI allege misclassification of workers doing full-time duties (project management, QA, etc.) under contractor status.
The number of gig workers outside the U.S. has been estimated at 240,000, getting paid $10 a day, but only if their work meets the quality standards.
Maybe the genius of Wang isn’t his model for producing high-quality, human-annotated data, but for labor exploitation at SCALE.
The Bros often compare AI to the Industrial Revolution. I didn’t realize they were referring to the Dickensian labor practices of the textile and steel mills. Another round of applause to the Tech Bros.
My next post will assess why Zuck paid $14.3 billion for the precocious young Wang and possible reasons the DOL abruptly dropped what should have been an open and shut case. I bet, dear reader, you have a few guesses swirling around in your brains. And not to overpromise, but this goes to the highest levels of government, defense, and Tech Bro Power. He who gets to Artificial Super Intelligence first shall rule the world.
I also want to give a voice to the thousands of contractors and gig workers dehumanized and thrown away by a founder who made a fortune and became a legend.
As of this writing, Scale AI is facing at least 4 active lawsuits that primarily center on labor practices and psychological harm.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ChatGPT and Microsoft Co-pilot serve as my faithful research assistants.
Scale AI Contractors Allege ‘Wage Theft’ in Letter to U.S. Senators
Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor | TechCrunch
Docs Show How Freelancers Test AI by Creating 'Harmful' Prompts - Business Insider
US Labor Department ends fair pay probe into Scale AI
The Department of Labor just dropped its investigation into Scale AI | TechCrunch
Fairwork-Cloudwork-Ratings-2023-Red.pdf
Labor Department Scraps Investigation Into Scale AI. Its Subpoena Won’t Be Enforced
Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor | TechCrunch
Home | U.S. Department of Labor
Investigation Into Scale AI Also Targets Its HR Partners HireArt and Upwork
Scale AI’s Remotasks workers in the Philippines cry foul over low pay - The Washington Post
US Labor Department ends fair pay probe into Scale AI - report
Scale AI Contractors Allege ‘Wage Theft’ in Letter to U.S. Senators
'It's a Scam.' Accusations of Mass Non-Payment Grow Against Scale AI's Subsidiary, Outlier AI
Inside the AI Factory: the humans that make tech seem human | The Verge
AI Chatbots Are Hiring Tutors to Train Their Models - The New York Times
Training AI takes heavy toll on Kenyans working for $2 an hour | 60 Minutes
Scaling up: how increasing inputs has made artificial intelligence more capable - Our World in Data
Remotasks | Earn $USD Doing Online Tasks from Home
Fairwork | Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2023: Work in the Planetary Labour Market
Alexandr Wang on CNN's First Move with Julia Chatterley - YouTube
It's by design. Big Tech does not want you to know about the hundreds of thousands of human laborers required to refine the data that goes into AI models like Llama, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude. This could be an opportunity to offer well-paying jobs in developing countries if technology companies were willing to provide fair wages and good working conditions. Many of these workers make less than $10 for 8 hours of tedious, often emotionally disturbing work, if they get paid at all. This is happening simultaneously to Zuckerberg offering nine-figure compensation packages to individual "AI prodigies," reportedly ranging from $100 million to $1.5 billion over several years to join his Superintelligence Labs. It's abhorrent.
Yep, super glad you pointed this out, Michael. Founders Fund was an early backer of Scale AI & was influential in the $100M round in 2019. Thiel has nothing but praise for Scale AI’s role in the AI ecosystem. Thiel looks for founders he could “become good friends with.” This speaks volumes about the character of Wang.
There are so many layers to this story. My 1st post was an attempt to explain the deeply complicated labor ecosystem Wang built. My next installment will focus on why the DOL abruptly dropped the investigation on May 9, 2025, and requires a lot of research & digging. It’s no secret that Wang has been courting Donald J, plus Michael Kratsios, our new Director of Science & Tech to the White House was Managing Director at Scale AI after serving as CTO for the 1st Trump administration.