Scale AI's Alexandr Wang says US is trailing China on data

AI tycoon suggests the US should create an 'artificial intelligence data reserve'

Scale AI chief executive Alexandr Wang in a discussion at the AI+ Expo in Washington. Photo: Cody Combs

Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang said that in the race for artificial intelligence superiority, the US and China are "neck and neck", but Beijing is ahead in terms of accumulating data to build models.

"China has had large-scale government programmes to win on data," Mr Wang said on Wednesday during at the AI+ Expo in Washington. But he said privacy is not a top priority for Beijing.

"So you know, there are all these ways that naturally they will be ahead on data, and we need to make sure that we can match that."

The race for AI dominance is not over, Mr Wang said: "We're ahead on compute, they're ahead on data and we're neck and neck on algorithms.

He blamed "legacy reasons" for the US lagging behind China on data, the backbone of large-language models that make AI so powerful.

To catch up to China, he suggested that the US create a national data reserve, and think of data in the same way as petroleum or other natural resources.

Scale AI chief executive Alexandr Wong. Photo: CSIS

"The first priority [in the reserve] should be national security data," he said. "There's so much incredibly useful and valuable data that right now is fragmented and not leveraged for building powerful capabilities."

Mr Wang also insisted that the US has "much more" military data than China, but that data was segregated and fragmented.

Mr Wang's discussion about AI came on the third and final day of the technology conference in Washington. While his was one of the more high-profile talks at the event, his company Scale AI – whose technology helps to train AI applications – has been criticised by those concerned about the junction between artificial intelligence and the defence industry.

It already has some of the world's technology giants as its clients, including Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI. The company also works with the US Air Force and US Army.

Mr Wang has openly stood behind his company's defence contracts. During a discussion at Centre for Strategic and International Studies in May, he insisted that the company's work and the use of AI for US military solutions was a "moral imperative".

“We’re at the brink of this incredibly powerful new technology and the applications for national security are obvious," Mr Wang said.

He said that a visit to China, where he saw AI companies working on facial recognition and surveillance, bolstered his belief that Scale AI should work with US defence.

“At that moment it was clear for me that the US would need to have the highest quality human capital and the best companies focused on this problem."

The buzz around Scale AI continues to grow as the self-described "data-centric end-to-end solution" AI infrastructure company expands its footprint.

Originally from New Mexico, Mr Wang founded Scale AI in 2016 shortly after dropping out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he saw AI developments creating the need for ways to provide and manage high-quality training data for technology companies and other large businesses.

His company has more than 900 employees and secured at least $1.3 billion in financing, resulting in a $13.8 billion valuation.

At the AI+ convention, he spoke highly of the AI partnerships recently announced during US President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

"Now what we're seeing is that we want to get ahead in this AI age and that's the motivating idea behind what you saw in the Middle East," Mr Wang said.

He said that he expects similar partnerships and announcements with other countries in the years ahead.