Lex Fridman Podcast of AI Inside Datumo: The Startup Taking on Scale AI
Aug 17, 2025
A new player in AI infrastructure, Datumo, is challenging the established giant, Scale AI. Their innovative crowd-sourcing approach to data labeling has raised eyebrows and $15.5 million in funding. The discussion highlights how this shift may spark a more diverse AI industry. Analysts speculate on the impact of this emerging competition, questioning the future dynamics of AI development.
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Prioritize Explainability And Safety
- Companies should prioritize understanding how AI makes decisions since ~40% view explainability as a significant risk.
- Actively address model interpretability and safety rather than assuming it's a solved problem.
Labeling Firms Can Pivot To Model Safety
- Dedumo evolved from pure data labeling into model evaluation and safety benchmarking as customers demanded more.
- This shift shows labeling firms can naturally expand into model monitoring and enterprise safety tools.
Crowdsourced Labeling Through A Reward App
- David Kim built a reward-based crowdsourcing app so anyone can label data in spare time and get paid.
- The approach helped the startup secure tens of thousands in pre-contract sales and exceed $1M revenue in year one.