Scale AI made cuts to a key AI team

Scale AI, the data-labeling startup that Meta invested $14 billion in, has made cuts to a key team that helps the company test artificial intelligence models for potential harms.

Twelve contractors working for Scale AI's Red Team received emails terminating their work on Friday evening, according to multiple current and former workers who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The email, which Business Insider viewed, read, "Your assignment is being terminated as your performance has fallen below the standards of the role."

Based in San Francisco, Scale AI helps tech companies improve their latest chatbots by doing things like rewriting their responses. It's part of a booming AI training industry.

Scale AI spokesperson Natalia Montalvo told Business Insider the cuts were "not part of a larger restructuring." Montalvo said that the twelve were part of Scale's "contingent workforce" and represent a "small fraction" of the red team.

"Scale continues to maintain active red teaming projects with customers and remains committed to delivering and investing in red teaming services for leading AI companies," she said.

Multiple workers described the cuts as layoffs in posts on LinkedIn. Two former Red Team members told Business Insider that since Meta's investment in Scale, the amount of work coming in for the team had dropped off sharply.

A substantial portion of Scale AI's workforce, including the 12 who were eliminated, are contractors hired via agencies like HireArt, which sent the email.

According to the email, team members who were cut will receive one month of severance pay, and their unused paid time off will not be paid. The email also said that HireArt would provide former team members with a shipping label if they had a Scale-issued device or badge.

One former Red Teamer estimated that cuts represent roughly half of the team's size. Scale AI did not respond on the record when asked for the exact number of people on the team.

This follows a round of cuts in July when Scale laid off 14% of its full-time employees and 500 contractors. Those layoffs came after major customers like OpenAI pulled their business following Meta's purchase of nearly half the company and its hiring of Scale's CEO, Alexandr Wang. Scale AI cited market shifts and overhiring in an internal email about the layoffs.

OpenAI was a major customer of Scale AI's Red Team, one former worker told Business Insider. Willow Primack, who once led Scale AI's Red Team, departed for OpenAI shortly after Meta's investment.

The lack of work for the Red Team has led to members being given more generalist, non-specialized tasks that have little to do with their expertise in improving AI model safety, two former workers told Business Insider.

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