The AI Policy Podcast Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang on Securing U.S. AI Leadership
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May 2, 2025 
In this engaging discussion, Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, shares insights on pivotal AI policy issues. He delves into the competitive landscape with China, emphasizing the need for robust U.S. leadership in AI development. Wang highlights the strategic importance of AI in national security and innovative military collaborations. He also addresses the evolving safety standards for AI technologies and advocates for reforms to establish a national AI data reserve, ensuring the U.S. remains at the forefront of AI innovation.
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Founding Scale AI
- Alexandr Wang founded Scale AI at 19 as a MIT student to address the lack of data infrastructure in AI.
- He started by supporting autonomous vehicles, working with companies like Waymo and Toyota to curate essential datasets.
Scaling Drives AI Progress
- AI capabilities have rapidly advanced simply by scaling up data and compute on existing algorithms.
- This exponential growth defies early predictions, reaching feats like outperforming top coders within a decade.
Pivoting to National Security
- Wang decided to pivot Scale AI to work with U.S. national security despite investor and employee skepticism.
- His background in Los Alamos and patriotism motivated a moral imperative to support defense-related AI.