US Department of Labor drops investigation into Scale AI: Report
The US Department of Labor stopped its investigation into Scale AI's compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, TechCrunch reported on Friday, citing a source directly familiar with the matter. The FLSA is a federal law that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and other labor norms.
The investigation was looking into Scale AI's compliance with fair pay practices and working conditions. It was initiated nearly a year ago under the former President Joe Biden's administration, the company had said in March.
Scale AI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Founded in 2016, Scale AI is a data labeling startup backed by tech giants Nvidia, Amazon and Meta.
Scale AI, last valued at nearly $14 billion, also provides a platform for researchers to exchange AI-related information, with contributors in more than 9,000 cities and towns.
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘I'm the world's youngest self-made female billionaire'
A 30-year-old US tech entrepreneur born to immigrant parents has unseated Taylor Swift as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. Lucy Guo, who is worth an estimated $1.3bn (£1bn) according to Forbes, told The Telegraph that her new title 'doesn't really feel like much'. 'I think that maybe reality hasn't hit yet, right? Because most of my money is still on paper,' she said. Ms Guo's wealth stems from her 5pc stake in Scale AI, a company she co-founded in 2016. The artificial intelligence (AI) business is currently raising money in a deal likely to value it at $25bn. That valuation – and the billionaire status it has bestowed upon Ms Guo – underlines the current AI boom, which has reinvigorated Silicon Valley and is now reshaping the world. Everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Sir Keir Starmer have praised the potential of the technology, which is forecast to save billions but may also destroy scores of jobs. The AI craze has caused the founders and chief executives of companies in the space to climb the world's rich list as they cash in on soaring valuations and increasing demand for their companies' technologies. Ms Guo is also an exemplar of the American dream. Born to Chinese immigrant parents, she dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University to find her fortune. Like Mr Zuckerberg before her, the decision to ditch traditional education in favour of entrepreneurship has now paid off handsomely. Still, it was not a decision her parents approved of at the time. 'They stopped talking to me for a while – which is fine,' she said. 'I get it, because, you know, the immigrant mentality was like, 'we sacrificed everything, we came to a new country, left all our relatives behind, to try to give our kids a better future'. 'I think they viewed it as a sign of disrespect. They're like, 'wow, you don't appreciate all the sacrifices we did for you, and you don't love us'. So they were extremely hurt.' They have since reconciled. In her first year of college, Ms Guo took part in hackathons and coding competitions, helping her to realise that 'you can just create a startup out of like, nothing'. She was awarded a Thiel Fellowship, which provides recipients with $200,000 over two years to support them to drop out of university and pursue other work, such as launching a startup. The fellowship is funded by Peter Thiel, the former PayPal chief executive. Mr Thiel, who donated $1.25m to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has been an enthusiastic supporter of entrepreneurship, and also co-founded Palantir, the data analytics and AI software firm now worth billions. Ms Guo initially tried to found a company based around people selling their home cooking to others. While the business did well financially, it faced food safety problems and ultimately failed. After stints at Quora, the question-and-answer website, and Snapchat, Ms Guo launched Scale AI with co-founder Alexandr Wang in 2016. The company labels the data used to develop applications for AI. The timing was perfect: OpenAI had been founded a year earlier and uses Scale AI's technology to help train ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot. OpenAI is one of the leading lights of the new AI boom and has a valuation of $300bn. Like Ms Guo, its founder and boss Sam Altman is now a billionaire. Ms Guo left Scale AI only two years after helping to found it – 'ultimately there was a lot of friction between me and my co-founder' – but retained her stake, a decision that helped propel her into the ranks of the world's top 1pc. 'It's not like I'm flying PJs [private jets] everywhere. Just occasionally, just when other people pay for them. I'm kidding – sometimes I pay for them,' Ms Guo said, laughing. After leaving Scale AI, Ms Guo went on to set up her own venture capital fund, Backend Capital, which has so far invested in more than 100 startups. She has also run HF0, an AI business accelerator. Ms Guo is particularly passionate about supporting female entrepreneurs: 'If you take two people that are exactly the same, male and female, they come out of MIT as engineers, I think that subconsciously every investor thinks the male is going to do better, which sucks.' However, she is demanding of companies she backs. 'If you care about work-life balance, go work at Google, you'll get paid a high salary and you'll have that work-life balance,' she said. 'If you're someone that wants to build a startup, I think it's pretty unrealistic to build a venture-funded startup with work-life balance.' Ms Guo's work-life balance has itself been the subject of tabloid attention. After leaving Scale AI she was dubbed 'Miami's number one party girl' by the New York Post for raucous celebrations held at her multimillion-dollar flat in the city's One Thousand Museum tower, which counts David Beckham among its residents. One 2022 party involved a lemur and snake rented from the Zoological Wildlife Foundation, and led to the building's homeowners' association sending a warning letter. While she still owns her residence in Miami, Ms Guo lives in Los Angeles. Alongside investing, Ms Guo has started a new business, Passes, which lets users sell access to themselves online through paid direct messages, livestreaming and subscriptions. Creators on the platform include TikTok influencer Emma Norton, actor Bella Thorne and the music producer Kygo. It is pitched as a competitor to Patreon, a platform that lets musicians and artists sell products and services directly to fans. However, the business also occupies the same space as OnlyFans, the platform known for hosting adult videos and images, and Passes has faced claims that it knowingly distributed sexually explicit material featuring minors. A legal complaint filed by OnlyFans model Alice Rosenblum claimed the platform produced, possessed and sold sexually explicit content featuring her when she was underage. The claims are strongly denied by the company. A spokesman for Passes said: 'This lawsuit is part of an orchestrated attempt to defame Passes and Ms Guo, and these claims have no basis in reality. As explained in the motion to dismiss filed on April 28, Ms Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations made against them in the lawsuit.' Scrutiny of Passes and Ms Guo herself is only likely to intensify following her crowning by Forbes. However, she is sceptical that she will hold on to the title of youngest self-made female billionaire for long. 'I have almost no doubt this title can be taken in three to six months,' she said, adding: 'Every single time it was taken, it's like, OK, there's more innovation happening – women are crushing it. 'I think I'm personally excited for someone else to take that title, because that's a sign entrepreneurship is growing.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
After its data was wiped, KiranaPro's co-founder cannot rule out an external hack
Indian grocery delivery startup KiranaPro's recent data loss story has more holes than Swiss cheese, as the startup remains unclear whether the incident was an internal breach or an external hack. Last week, the Bengaluru-based startup discovered that it could not access its back-end servers and that all its data, including its app code, had been deleted from GitHub. The startup on Friday blamed a former employee for the breach. However, in an interview, KiranaPro co-founder and CEO Deepak Ravindran conceded that the company had not deactivated the employee's account after they departed the company and cannot rule out the possibility of subsequent malicious misuse of their account. "If we go deeper, we have to do a real forensic investigation. We are going to talk [about] this with our board, the investors, and we are going to get a formal opinion on that also with our legal advisers," Ravindran told TechCrunch. Earlier on Friday, Ravindran claimed in a post on X that the incident that affected its data was an internal breach. "After careful investigation, we conclude that this was not a hack. No external party penetrated our ordering or payment systems, exploited vulnerabilities, or bypassed security protocols," he wrote. The co-founder also explicitly shared a screenshot of a LinkedIn profile of one of KiranaPro's former employees on X on Thursday, alleging that they had deleted the startup's code. (TechCrunch is not sharing the post's link, as the startup has yet to offer concrete proof supporting its position.) "[T]his was an internal data breach. Specifically, it was the result of actions taken by a trusted internal employee who had legitimate access to our systems," the co-founder wrote in his post on Friday. "This individual intentionally deleted critical server logs while they were being tested and/or edited, an action that goes directly against our policies, our principles, and the trust we place in our team." When TechCrunch asked if KiranaPro could rule out whether any third party had maliciously gained access to the former employee's account, Ravindran could not. "We have to do a complete forensic check on the company. We have to do the entire IP scan. We have to look at where the tracks happened. We have to check the computers, MacBooks, and whatever is used. Everything has to be done. Then we have to spend money … so, that's why we decided not to," he told TechCrunch. Then what was the basis of Ravindran's allegation? It was a GitHub response, a copy of which he shared with TechCrunch. The response included a username, which Ravindran said was associated with the former employee. "All we have is the emails that we got from GitHub, stating that [the former employee's username] as an individual is the one who deleted the account. We haven't done the investigation further," Ravindran told TechCrunch. Launched in late 2024, KiranaPro operates as a buyer app on the Indian government's Open Network for Digital Commerce. The startup allows more than 55,000 customers in 50 cities to purchase groceries from their local shops and nearby supermarkets using its voice-based interface. The company also supports local language inputs, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil. Ravindran stated that they decided to call out the former employee based on the company's "belief system," as they claim the former employee deleted the data after their sudden termination. However, the startup said it is not aware if there were enough protections on the former employee's devices, such as multi-factor authentication, to restrict malicious third-party access, like malware. The company confirmed it did not remove the employee's access to its data and GitHub account following his departure. "Employee offboarding was not being handled properly because there was no full-time HR," KiranaPro's chief technology officer, Saurav Kumar, confirmed to TechCrunch. Alongside its code saved in GitHub, KiranaPro also lost access to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) account, which included its customer data and their transaction details. Ravindran told TechCrunch that the GitHub data was restored after getting its backup from one of their employees. The startup also regained access to its AWS account along with its customer data. Both the co-founder and CTO said the AWS account was protected by multi-factor authentication, but neither could say how the account was accessed, as nobody else had physical access to Ravindran's phone, which generates the multi-factor code. Nonetheless, Ravindran claimed that the customer data stored in the AWS cloud remained intact and was not accessed by any third parties, nor was it downloaded by the former employee in question. "Because if that is the case, I will get its notification on email or anything [sic]," he said. That said, Ravindran stated that the startup has enough evidence to file a formal complaint with the police, but said that its investigation is ongoing. The startup has also not fully paid its current employees, the company's co-founder confirmed, soon after the company raised a seed round of ₹100 million Indian rupees (about $1.2 million), which Ravindran said has yet to be fully wired. The startup counts Blume Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, and Turbostart among its institutional venture backers, as well as Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and Boston Consulting Group managing director Vikas Taneja among its angel investors. It has 15 employees located in Bengaluru and Kerala. Sign in to access your portfolio
TechCrunch
4 hours ago
- TechCrunch
After its data was wiped, KiranaPro's co-founder cannot rule out an external hack
Indian grocery delivery startup KiranaPro's recent data loss story has more holes than Swiss cheese, as the startup remains unclear whether the incident was an internal breach or an external hack. Last week, the Bengaluru-based startup discovered that it could not access its back-end servers and that all its data, including its app code, had been deleted from GitHub. The startup on Friday blamed a former employee for the breach. However, in an interview, KiranaPro co-founder and CEO Deepak Ravindran conceded that the company had not deactivated the employee's account after they departed the company and cannot rule out the possibility of subsequent malicious misuse of their account. 'If we go deeper, we have to do a real forensic investigation. We are going to talk [about] this with our board, the investors, and we are going to get a formal opinion on that also with our legal advisers,' Ravindran told TechCrunch. Earlier on Friday, Ravindran claimed in a post on X that the incident that affected its data was an internal breach. 'After careful investigation, we conclude that this was not a hack. No external party penetrated our ordering or payment systems, exploited vulnerabilities, or bypassed security protocols,' he wrote. The co-founder also explicitly shared a screenshot of a LinkedIn profile of one of KiranaPro's former employees on X on Thursday, alleging that they had deleted the startup's code. (TechCrunch is not sharing the post's link, as the startup has yet to offer concrete proof supporting its position.) '[T]his was an internal data breach. Specifically, it was the result of actions taken by a trusted internal employee who had legitimate access to our systems,' the co-founder wrote in his post on Friday. 'This individual intentionally deleted critical server logs while they were being tested and/or edited, an action that goes directly against our policies, our principles, and the trust we place in our team.' When TechCrunch asked if KiranaPro could rule out whether any third party had maliciously gained access to the former employee's account, Ravindran could not. 'We have to do a complete forensic check on the company. We have to do the entire IP scan. We have to look at where the tracks happened. We have to check the computers, MacBooks, and whatever is used. Everything has to be done. Then we have to spend money … so, that's why we decided not to,' he told TechCrunch. Then what was the basis of Ravindran's allegation? It was a GitHub response, a copy of which he shared with TechCrunch. The response included a username, which Ravindran said was associated with the former employee. 'All we have is the emails that we got from GitHub, stating that [the former employee's username] as an individual is the one who deleted the account. We haven't done the investigation further,' Ravindran told TechCrunch. Former employee's account was never offboarded Launched in late 2024, KiranaPro operates as a buyer app on the Indian government's Open Network for Digital Commerce. The startup allows more than 55,000 customers in 50 cities to purchase groceries from their local shops and nearby supermarkets using its voice-based interface. The company also supports local language inputs, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil. Ravindran stated that they decided to call out the former employee based on the company's 'belief system,' as they claim the former employee deleted the data after their sudden termination. However, the startup said it is not aware if there were enough protections on the former employee's devices, such as multi-factor authentication, to restrict malicious third-party access, like malware. The company confirmed it did not remove the employee's access to its data and GitHub account following his departure. 'Employee offboarding was not being handled properly because there was no full-time HR,' KiranaPro's chief technology officer, Saurav Kumar, confirmed to TechCrunch. Company restores AWS account and GitHub data Alongside its code saved in GitHub, KiranaPro also lost access to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) account, which included its customer data and their transaction details. Ravindran told TechCrunch that the GitHub data was restored after getting its backup from one of their employees. The startup also regained access to its AWS account along with its customer data. Both the co-founder and CTO said the AWS account was protected by multi-factor authentication, but neither could say how the account was accessed, as nobody else had physical access to Ravindran's phone, which generates the multi-factor code. Nonetheless, Ravindran claimed that the customer data stored in the AWS cloud remained intact and was not accessed by any third parties, nor was it downloaded by the former employee in question. 'Because if that is the case, I will get its notification on email or anything [sic],' he said. That said, Ravindran stated that the startup has enough evidence to file a formal complaint with the police, but said that its investigation is ongoing. The startup has also not fully paid its current employees, the company's co-founder confirmed, soon after the company raised a seed round of ₹100 million Indian rupees (about $1.2 million), which Ravindran said has yet to be fully wired. The startup counts Blume Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, and Turbostart among its institutional venture backers, as well as Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and Boston Consulting Group managing director Vikas Taneja among its angel investors. It has 15 employees located in Bengaluru and Kerala.
