Alexandr Wang is the founder and CEO of Scale AI, a platform that provides data training for AI programs. In 2021 he was named the youngest self-made billionaire in the world by Forbes at the age of 24. Theo is joined by Alexandr Wang to talk all about AI and how it’s changing our world fast. They discuss Alex’s choice to drop out of MIT to pursue this field full time, the debate over whether it’s creating or eliminating jobs, and how soon regular people will start to see these programs in their everyday lives. Alexandr Wang: https://www.instagram.com/alexanddeer/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/theo to get 10%off your first month. Modiphy: Get 50% off the last website you’ll ever need at https://modiphy.com/THEO ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: [email protected] Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Cam https://www.instagram.com/cam__george/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Alexandr Wang and what is Scale AI?
All tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R. Today's guest is from Los Alamos, New Mexico. He's a leader in the world of business and technology. He's an entrepreneur. He started Scale AI, a company recently valued at $14 billion. He started it when he was only 19 and at 24, he became the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
We talk about his company, the future of AI, and the role it plays in our human existence. This was super educational for me. I hope it is for you. I'm grateful for his time. Today's guest is Mr. Alexander Wang. Alexander Wang, man, thanks for hanging out, bro. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, good to see you, dude. Last time was at the inauguration. Yeah, what'd you think of that?
Like, what were your thoughts after you left? Because you and I ended up, we like left out of there and then went and got lunch together, which was kind of crazy.
It was, there was a lot going on. Yeah, it was a, were you there the whole weekend?
No, I just got there the day, the morning of the inauguration. Were you there the whole weekend?
I was there the whole weekend. Yeah, no, I mean, I think at least for what we do, like for AI, the new administration is really excited about it and wants to make sure that we get it right as a country. So that was all great, but it was kind of a crazy, the whole like event, like everything was pretty crazy. I don't know, what'd you think? Yeah.
I mean when I saw Conor McGregor show up, that's when I was like shit is – where are we? That's what like the most bizarre – I mean you were there. Sam Altman was there. I was just like – it was like what happened here? And part of that is because Alex Brusiewicz, you know. Totally, yeah. I mean it's all because of him that we all went.
But just the fact that he would bring these people together, it kind of makes you question.
Crossover. It's like in those like TV shows when you have those crossover episodes. Yeah. That's kind of what it felt like.
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Chapter 2: Why did Alexandr Wang drop out of MIT?
And that's scale AI.
Scale AI. Okay. And so did you – had you been following AI? Like what are your kind of – or you just like knew like this is where it's going? Like you just felt there was something – an instinct that you trusted or like – because that's a big thing to do.
I was – so I took all the AI classes at MIT.
Okay. So you were already learning a lot about it.
Yeah.
hang boy wow and uh but then so i worked on that and then it was there was one moment where where uh i was like there was like there was a moment that clicked where i was trying to build this thing and then there was one step that was like too easy i was like whoa that just worked right there and then that happened and then the the go match happened and i was like This stuff is happening.
And so I- Did you ever market those refrigerators? Did you ever actually create that? I didn't market them. No. Dude, I could totally see that, bro. There's a refrigerator. Every dorm has it where there's a camera built in and you just get, you get a notification on your phone, you know? You're like, damn, Adnan's got my hummus, you know? But you got video of him right there, dude.
That's a great idea. Yeah.
I love that. That was college me. Yeah. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What sparked Alexandr Wang's interest in AI?
Like we're humans are always going to have to figure out based on where culture is at, based on where, you know. what the dialogue is, what the, what the discourse is, all that kind of stuff. What is my fresh take? That's where, that's really one of the key things that humans are going to have to keep doing no matter what.
Right. And, and some of the, like a lot of films and books, a lot of it is, there's just like a problem. There's, there's maybe a information you learn, there's a red herring, and then there's a solution. Like that's a lot of stories, right? So If something just gave you the basis and then you go through and make everything your own.
Because a lot of things, there's only so many templates for things. Huh. Yeah. So say, for example, say you might need to hire people at a company then that would help direct your AI, like somebody who's good at marketing. managing AI and giving it the best prompts or the best way to ask it questions to get the perfect feedback for your company. So those would be new jobs.
Those would be actual new people you would need.
Yeah, so tons of new jobs. Well, first, I think just like helping to, you know, kind of what we were talking about before, these jobs around helping to improve the data and contribute to the AI systems, that's just going to keep growing for a long, long time.
And then as AI gets better and it gets used in more areas, then there are going to be a lot of jobs that pop up just exactly as you're saying, which is how do you what's the best way to use this as a tool? What's the best way to leverage it to actually make some of these applications or whatever you want to build a reality?
And then there's going to be folks who need to, once those are built, how do you keep improving it? How do you keep making it better? How do you keep it fresh? How do you keep it going? And then how do you also make sure it doesn't do anything bad? Right. Like, how do you make sure that the AI doesn't accidentally spam a million people or whatever it might be?
And you make sure that it sort of is like operating in a good way.
Fahim Anwar, I was watching him. Bring up a picture of Fahim. This is one of the funny – this guy – this is the most creative comedian in America, undeniable. He is so funny. He had – and everybody would say he's one of the few comedians that everybody goes in there to watch him perform. He had a bit the other night, he talks about he got into a Waymo, right?
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