Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang says he's waiting for Elon Musk's Neuralink before he has kids
As Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, prepares to take on a new role at Meta leading its superintelligence initiatives, he's also thinking about how to integrate superintelligence into the next generation.
And that means he's not having kids anytime soon.
On the Shawn Ryan Show on Thursday, Wang said he wants to wait to have kids until Neuralink or other brain-computer interfaces are available.
Neuralink, one of Elon Musk 's most futuristic endeavors, is developing coin-sized microchips that can be embedded into human brains. These chips will not only be able to record brain activity, but also stimulate it.
Still in clinical trials, Neuralink has so far been embedded in three patients. One of those patients, Brad Smith, who has ALS, said he was able to edit a video using his Neuralink brain chip.
While Neuralink has received a ton of buzz, it's not the only one developing these interfaces. Synchron, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is already working with Apple to help those with disabilities, like ALS patients, use their iPhones. Motif Neurotech is developing a neurostimulator system that works like a pacemaker for the brain and is now used for treating severe depression.
Wang also believes these devices will have profound implications for child development. "In your first like seven years of life, your brain is more neuroplastic than at any other point in your life," he said. "When we get Neuralink and we get these other technologies, kids who are born with them are gonna learn how to use them in like crazy, crazy ways."
Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to adapt and change — whether that means rewiring its structure, shifting how it functions, or forming new connections — in response to things happening inside us or around us.
It's often enhanced in children because the "organization of networks of neuronal synapses as well as white matter pathways remain 'under construction' well into adolescence and even later," according to a 2009 article published in the journal Brain Dev. This is why children are also able to learn new skills quickly and recover from injuries faster.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
12 minutes ago
- Forbes
Update Every App On Your Phone That's On This List
Update these apps now. The recent warning that Meta and Yandex have been secretly tracking billions of phones is a stark reminder that your most sensitive data is at risk. That loophole will now close, as others will be found. Let's not forget Google itself was caught doing broadly the same. It's now four years since Apple's game-changing App Privacy Labels exposed the sheer extent of data harvesting targeting iPhone users, with the assumption that Android must be even worse. I covered that extensively at the time, and it was clear then — as it is now — that when you're not paying for a product, you are the product. Multiple reports since have highlighted that permission abuse is still rife, with apps requesting access to data and functions they do not need to deliver the features of the app itself. This is data monetization, pure and simple, your data monetization. Top-1o data hungry apps Now the researchers at Apteco have revisited Apple's privacy labels to find out 'who's collecting most of your data' in 2025. The study focused specifically on 'Data linked to you,' as this is the type of data that ties directly back to your identity.' Apteco's key findings are unsurprising: 'Social media apps are the most data hungry,' and the most collected personal data is 'contact information (such as your name, phone number and home address).' But the range of harvested data goes far beyond that, as you can see from Apteco's table reporting the data accessed during testing. Data collected from users. Apteco's list 'is dominated by social media… highlighting how important data collection is to these types of platforms in order to customize content to show things such as posts and friend suggestions [and] which build detailed social profiles.' Apteco's top-1o list is dominated by global brands with apps installed by hundreds of millions if not billions of users. This isn't a call to delete those apps — albeit you should be aware of the data they're collecting while running on your phone. App settings on iPhone Instead, you should update the permissions granted to apps on this list, deciding if you want to give them blanket access to location and other sensitive data. You should also be aware that when you operate within the confines of an app, for example using its own browser, you are not protected by the usual web tracking defenses on your phone. You don't need to grant all the permissions requested, and you can limit those permissions that might be needed — such as location — to only apply when using the app or to manually request each time before sharing. You can also restrict location data such that it's not precise and just gives a general idea of where you are. Here are instructions for iPhone and Android on how to apply updates. 'The study highlights how extensive data collection has become across a huge variety of apps,' Apteco says. 'The sheer scale of data collected highlights why understanding and managing app permissions and data policies is increasingly important for users [who] need to be aware of how to actively manage app permissions and data policies.'
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang says he's waiting for Elon Musk's Neuralink before he has kids
Scale CEO Alexandr Wang, who's stepping into a new role at Meta, is not planning to have kids soon. On the Shawn Ryan Show, he said he's waiting until brain-computer interfaces are further along. Kids who are born with them will "learn how to use them in like crazy, crazy ways," he said. It's no surprise that wunderkinds want their children to be wunderkinds, too. As Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, prepares to take on a new role at Meta leading its superintelligence initiatives, he's also thinking about how to integrate superintelligence into the next generation. And that means he's not having kids anytime soon. On the Shawn Ryan Show on Thursday, Wang said he wants to wait to have kids until Neuralink or other brain-computer interfaces are available. Neuralink, one of Elon Musk's most futuristic endeavors, is developing coin-sized microchips that can be embedded into human brains. These chips will not only be able to record brain activity, but also stimulate it. Still in clinical trials, Neuralink has so far been embedded in three patients. One of those patients, Brad Smith, who has ALS, said he was able to edit a video using his Neuralink brain chip. While Neuralink has received a ton of buzz, it's not the only one developing these interfaces. Synchron, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is already working with Apple to help those with disabilities, like ALS patients, use their iPhones. Motif Neurotech is developing a neurostimulator system that works like a pacemaker for the brain and is now used for treating severe depression. Wang also believes these devices will have profound implications for child development. "In your first like seven years of life, your brain is more neuroplastic than at any other point in your life," he said. "When we get Neuralink and we get these other technologies, kids who are born with them are gonna learn how to use them in like crazy, crazy ways." Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to adapt and change — whether that means rewiring its structure, shifting how it functions, or forming new connections — in response to things happening inside us or around us. It's often enhanced in children because the "organization of networks of neuronal synapses as well as white matter pathways remain 'under construction' well into adolescence and even later," according to a 2009 article published in the journal Brain Dev. This is why children are also able to learn new skills quickly and recover from injuries faster. Wang's theory is that early adoption of brain-computer interfaces will allow children to leverage them in ways that adults can't. Read the original article on Business Insider
CNBC
11 hours ago
- CNBC
Google, Scale AI's largest customer, plans split after Meta deal, sources say
Alphabet's Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, plans to cut ties with Scale after news broke that rival Meta is taking a 49% stake in the AI data-labeling startup, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Google had planned to pay Scale AI about $200 million this year for the human-labeled training data that is crucial for developing technology, including the sophisticated AI models that power Gemini, its ChatGPT competitor, one of the sources said. The search giant already held conversations with several of Scale AI's rivals this week as it seeks to shift away much of that workload, sources added. Scale's loss of significant business comes as Meta takes a big stake in the company, valuing it at $29 billion. Scale was worth $14 billion before the deal. Scale AI intends to keep its business running while its CEO, Alexandr Wang, along with a few employees, move over to Meta. Since its core business is concentrated around a few customers, it could suffer greatly if it loses key customers like Google. In a statement, a Scale AI spokesperson said its business, which spans work with major companies and governments, remains strong, as it is committed to protecting customer data. The company declined to comment on specifics with Google. Scale AI raked in $870 million in revenue in 2024, and Google spent some $150 million on Scale AI's services last year, sources said. Other major tech companies that are customers of Scale's, including Microsoft, are backing away as well. Elon Musk's xAI is also looking to exit, one of the sources said. OpenAI decided to pull back from Scale several months ago, according to sources familiar with the matter, though it spends far less money than Google. OpenAI's CFO said on Friday that the company will continue to work with Scale AI, as one of its many data vendors. Companies that compete with Meta in developing cutting-edge AI models are concerned that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities and road map to a rival, five sources said. By contracting with Scale AI, customers often share proprietary data as well as prototype products for which Scale's workers are providing data-labeling services. With Meta now taking a 49% stake, AI companies are concerned that one of their chief rivals could gain knowledge about their business strategy and technical blueprints. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI declined to comment. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. The bulk of Scale AI's revenue comes from charging generative AI model makers for providing access to a network of human trainers with specialized knowledge — from historians to scientists, some with doctorate degrees. The humans annotate complex datasets that are used to "post-train" AI models, and as AI models have become smarter, the demand for the sophisticated human-provided examples has surged, and one annotation could cost as much as $100. Scale also does data-labeling for enterprises like self-driving car companies and the U.S. government, which are likely to stay, according to the sources. But its biggest money-maker is in partnering with generative AI model makers, the sources said. Google had already sought to diversify its data service providers for more than a year, three of the sources said. But Meta's moves this week have led Google to seek to move off Scale AI on all its key contracts, the sources added. Because of the way data-labeling contracts are structured, that process could happen quickly, two sources said. This will provide an opening for Scale AI's rivals to jump in. "The Meta-Scale deal marks a turning point," said Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing, a Scale AI competitor. "Leading AI labs are realizing neutrality is no longer optional, it's essential." Labelbox, another competitor, will "probably generate hundreds of millions of new revenue" by the end of the year from customers fleeing Scale, its CEO, Manu Sharma, told Reuters. Handshake, a competitor focusing on building a network of PhDs and experts, saw a surge of workload from top AI labs that compete with Meta. "Our demand has tripled overnight after the news," said Garrett Lord, CEO at Handshake. Many AI labs now want to hire in-house data-labelers, which allows their data to remain secure, said Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, a startup that in addition to competing directly with Scale AI also builds technology around being able to recruit and vet candidates in an automated way, enabling AI labs to scale up their data labeling operations quickly. Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of labeled data or curated training data, which is crucial for developing sophisticated tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Meta deal will be a boon for Scale AI's investors including Accel and Index Ventures, as well as its current and former employees. As part of the deal, Scale AI's CEO, Wang, will take a top position leading Meta's AI efforts. Meta is fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models released in April fell short of performance expectations.
