Meta的AI大動作：140億美元豪賭Scale AI｜華爾街日報

導讀

Meta Platforms 正在與資料標註公司 Scale AI 進行談判，計畫投資約 140 億美元並聘請其 CEO 王安德來領導其人工智慧工作。這筆交易將是 Meta 歷史上最大的對外投資之一，顯示出其對改革人工智慧工作的決心，尤其是在其 Llama 模型開發遇阻的情況下。

Scale AI 擁有超過 10 萬名合同工，專注於資料標註服務，曾為 OpenAI、Google和 Meta 提供支援。根據協議，Meta 將獲得 Scale AI 49% 的非投票權股份，而王安德將保留對這些股份的控制權。Meta 首席執行官祖克柏親自參與了相關招聘工作，希望通過整合 Scale AI 的資源和技術，推動其“超級智能”項目的進展。

Meta Seeks to Invest in AI Startup
Meta 尋求投資人工智慧初創公司

Meta Platforms is in advanced talks to invest around $14 billion into Scale AI and hire the startup’s chief executive, Alexandr Wang, to help lead its AI efforts, according to people familiar with the matter.

據知情人士透露，Meta Platforms 正在就向 Scale AI 投資約 140 億美元進行深入談判，並計畫聘請這家初創公司的首席執行官王安德（Alexandr Wang）來幫助領導其人工智慧（AI）工作。

The deal would be one of the social-media giant’s largest-ever outside investments and show the dramatic steps it is taking to revamp its AI work, which has suffered setbacks including the delayed release of a major new model.

這筆交易將是這家社交媒體巨頭有史以來最大的對外投資之一，並顯示出其為改革人工智慧工作而採取的戲劇性舉措，該公司的人工智慧工作曾遭遇挫折，包括一個主要新模型的發佈被推遲。

As part of the proposed deal—which is still being finalized—other Scale AI employees would join Meta alongside Wang as part of a new effort to develop advanced AI called superintelligence.

作為仍在最終敲定的協議的一部分，除了王安德之外，Scale AI 的其他員工也將加入 Meta，共同參與一項名為“超級智能”的先進人工智能開發工作。

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally got involved in the recruitment for the superintelligence effort after the company struggled to develop its recent Llama models, including by reaching out to AI researchers directly on WhatsApp, according to a person familiar with his approach.

據知情人士透露，由於公司在開發最新的 Llama 模型時遇到困難，Meta 首席執行官馬克·祖克柏（Mark Zuckerberg）親自參與了超級智能項目的招聘工作，甚至通過 WhatsApp 直接聯絡人工智慧研究人員。

On Tuesday, Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, sent an internal memo to some employees saying that the company was finalizing details on its plans for AI leadership.

周二，Meta 的首席產品官克里斯·考克斯（Chris Cox）向部分員工傳送了一份內部備忘錄，稱公司正在敲定其人工智慧領導力計畫的細節。

Tech giants have largely struggled to keep up with the pace of AI innovation, forcing them to look toward younger startups for fresh talent. Antitrust scrutiny in recent years has made it difficult for them to acquire companies, so they are instead resorting to large minority investments in startups that allow them to hire their key employees. Last year, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google all made similar deals for other AI startups.

科技巨頭在很大程度上難以跟上人工智慧創新的步伐，這迫使他們轉向年輕的初創公司以獲取新鮮人才。近年來的反壟斷審查使他們難以收購公司，因此他們轉而通過在初創公司中進行大規模少數股權投資來僱傭其關鍵員工。去年，微軟、亞馬遜和Google都與其他人工智慧初創公司達成了類似的交易。

Unlike those startups, however, Scale AI isn’t a research lab focused on building its own large language models from scratch. The startup is instead a data-labeling company, managing over 100,000 contractors from across the world who label images, write sentences and type out stories that help AI chatbots learn how to think and speak like humans.

然而，與那些初創公司不同，Scale AI 並不是一個專注於從零開始建構自己的大型語言模型的研究實驗室。相反，這家初創公司是一家資料標註公司，管理著來自世界各地的超過 10 萬名合同工，他們標註圖像、撰寫句子並編寫故事，以幫助人工智慧聊天機器人學會像人類一樣思考和說話。

The startup has sold its services to OpenAI, Google and Meta and has more recently begun to build software products that help businesses create AI tools, though that is a smaller part of its business.

這家初創公司已將其服務出售給 OpenAI、Google和 Meta，並且最近開始建構幫助企業建立人工智慧工具的軟體產品，儘管這在其業務中所佔比例較小。

The investment would give Meta 49% of the company, people familiar with the deal said. The social-media giant and the startup have discussed an arrangement in which Meta would receive nonvoting shares.

據知情人士透露，這筆投資將使 Meta 獲得該公司 49% 的股份。這家社交媒體巨頭和初創公司已經討論了一種安排，即 Meta 將獲得非投票權股份。

Should those turn into voting shares, Wang would have control over them, one of the people said.

據其中一位知情人士表示，如果這些股份變成有投票權的股份，王安德將擁有對它們的控制權。

A portion of the invested cash would be given to Scale shareholders, who would retain their ownership in the startup, the person said. Bloomberg and other outlets previously reported details of the deal.

該知情人士表示，投資的一部分現金將給予 Scale 的股東，他們將繼續保留對這家初創公司的所有權。此前，彭博社和其他媒體已經報導了這筆交易的細節。

Tech companies big and small are racing to build AI models that can surpass human intelligence, a threshold that industry leaders believe will reshape how society and the economy are organized as well as lavish riches onto the technology’s winners.

大大小小的科技公司都在競相開發能夠超越人類智能的人工智慧模型，行業領導者認為這一門檻將重塑社會和經濟的組織方式，並為技術的贏家帶來豐厚的財富。

While Meta deployed AI on a massive scale in the past year, the company has struggled to release a more advanced version of its biggest Llama model, delaying it until the fall or later. Two other recently released models came under fire after it was revealed that Meta submitted different versions of the models to a third-party performance test than they delivered to the general public.

儘管 Meta 在過去一年中大規模部署了人工智慧，但該公司在發佈其最大的 Llama 模型的更先進版本方面遇到了困難，發佈被推遲到秋季甚至更晚。另外兩個最近發佈的模型在被曝光 Meta 提交給第三方性能測試的版本與提供給公眾的版本不同後，遭到了批評。

Last month, senior executives at the company were so frustrated about the performance of the Llama team that they were considering making significant management changes to the group, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

上個月，《華爾街日報》曾報導，公司高層對 Llama 團隊的表現感到非常沮喪，以至於他們正在考慮對該團隊進行重大的管理層調整。 (Chris的外刊閱讀筆記)