Latest news with #dataLabeling
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Uber Is Making A Push In Data Labeling After Scale AI's Deal With Meta
Uber is making a push in data labeling. Last week, Scale AI's bombshell deal for Meta to take a 49% stake in the company sent shockwaves throughout the industry: In its wake, prominent clients like OpenAI have pulled back on working with Scale, which the ChatGPT maker had already been doing for months. Google is also planning its split. And a host of data-labeling rivals has been emboldened to step in to fill the void. Among them is a little-known unit from a familiar giant: Uber. Since last November, the ride-hailing behemoth has operated Uber AI Solutions, a data-labeling platform focused on training AI models for enterprise clients. Now as Scale's deal has carved a new opening in the market, Uber is making its pitch to new customers. 'For Uber, our core has always been being the platform of choice for flexible on-demand work,' Megha Yethadka, general manager of the unit and a 10-year veteran of the company, told Forbes. Uber drivers, of course, are contractors that shuttle around passengers and deliveries all across the globe. 'That extends itself really well to this business of digital tasks now.' On Friday, Uber told Forbes it's making a push to expand the service. Among the updates: a new service that provides ready-to-use datasets, including audio, video, images and text, to customers training their own models. The company will also license out the platforms it uses internally for managing data labeling projects and accessing its network of contracted clickworkers, making them available for clients to use. Beyond just training models, Uber is now also offering clients tools to develop AI agents, which can take specific actions for users, like helping with customer support. Another change: Launched as Uber Scaled Solutions, the company recently swapped out the 'scaled' in its name for 'AI.' Yethadka said the rebrand had nothing to do with avoiding confusion with its similarly-named rival, but wanting to more simply convey the AI of the unit. Going forward, Uber wants to separate itself from its data-labeling rivals by automating more of the process to set up clickwork projects. The company is developing a software interface that allows clients 'to simply describe their data needs in plain language,' while the platform automatically handles assigning tasks, setting up workflows and maintaining quality control. The idea is to hand over the project to human clickworkers more quickly, instead of doing manual work to onboard workers. 'We do see an opportunity to build this into a meaningful business line for Uber.' The company said Uber AI Solutions is now available in more than 30 countries, an expansion from its five initial launch markets last November, which included the U.S., Canada and India. Since the start of this year, Yethadka said Uber has doubled the number of clickworkers on its platform. She declined to disclose how many taskers are in the company's network overall, but said there are 'tens of thousands' of people working on each topic area of tasks, including STEM, coding and law. The most engaged clickworkers spend about 3 to 4 hours a day performing tasks, which can range from $20 to $200 per hour, depending on the complexity of the work, Yethadka said. The unit has more than 50 corporate customers, including the autonomous vehicle company Aurora and Niantic, the creator of Pokemon Go that recently ditched the games business to pivot to enterprise AI. The expansion comes as Scale's tie-up with Meta has thrown the data labeling industry into a frenzy. As part of the deal, Scale CEO and founder Alex Wang is heading to Meta to lead the tech giant's newly-formed Superintelligence Lab, an effort to compete with other deep-pocketed frontier labs including those from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. Now, 'a number of companies are, of course, looking to revisit their partner strategy for data,' said Yethadka, aiming to find vendors that are 'neutral and impartial." In the aftermath, smaller rivals, including unicorns Mercor and Turing and startup Invisible Technologies, are clamoring to pounce. But Uber stands out among the competition because of its sheer size and resources, Yethadka argues. 'A lot of companies in this space are a lot smaller, VC-funding dependent,' she said. Meanwhile Uber, which is worth $175 billion and tallied $43.9 billion in revenue last year, is a more reliable long-term bet, Yethadka said. (She declined to break out the data-labeling unit's revenue.) While other companies in the space more resemble service providers, Uber has a long history of shipping products, which brings a different perspective when the company collaborates with customers, she said. 'We have been a product company and an operations company, and have done this for a living ourselves,' said Yethadka. 'We do see an opportunity to build this into a meaningful business line for Uber.' Even Scale had taken notice of Uber before the Meta deal. 'This space is full of opportunities. I think more people are seeing the value of the work we're doing here, which is why even a business like Uber will want to try their hand at the same space,' Xiaote Zhu, GM of Scale's Outlier platform for generative AI clickwork, told Forbes earlier this year. Still, it's not a foregone conclusion that Uber will come out on top, competitors say. The spoils will go to the company that compiles the best pool of clickworkers. 'Data annotation is transitioning towards higher and higher-skilled work,' Brendan Foody, CEO of $2 billion-valued Mercor, told Forbes. 'Uber's success will depend on how effectively they build this high-skilled talent network.' What's more, Uber has its own baggage. For years, the company limped through controversies around regulation and the treatment of its contract drivers. Yethadka said customers have not minded, and that Uber has committed to 'do the right thing' when it comes to data confidentiality and security controls. 'And that continues to be applied to this new line of business as well,' she said.
Zawya
12 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
TDCX Group acquires SUPA to supercharge AI-enablement platform Chemin
Acquisition strengthens Chemin's capabilities in complex AI data services amid global demand surge SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 20 June 2025 - TDCX Group, a leading provider of digital customer experience (CX) and growth services for global enterprises, today announced the acquisition of SUPA, a cutting-edge data labeling and annotation platform known for its agile, gig-powered delivery model. SUPA will be integrated into Chemin, TDCX Group's recently launched AI enablement subsidiary, to address the rising complexity of AI development and meet surging global demand for elite-level data services. As artificial intelligence systems evolve rapidly — from large language models (LLMs) to autonomous agents — the nature of data-related work has grown more specialized and cognitively demanding. What was once simple tagging has shifted toward intricate data interpretation, nuanced prompt engineering, synthetic data validation, and multi-modal reasoning tasks increasingly performed by individuals with advanced academic training, including PhDs, engineers, linguists, and ethicists. Mr. Laurent Junique, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, TDCX Group, said, "The future of customer experience is AI-powered, and AI itself runs on increasingly complex, curated data. SUPA brings us the right capabilities and talent frameworks to fuel that future. By embedding SUPA into Chemin, we're doubling down on our ability to support enterprise and frontier AI labs with world-class data operations." Mr. Mark Koh, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SUPA, said, "The future of AI is all about the quality of its decisions. At SUPA, we've built a platform that refines raw data into the fuel for smarter, more reliable AI systems. It's about injecting judgment and deep domain expertise at critical points in the data lifecycle. TDCX Group gives us the global platform to scale our model of precision and agility while keeping quality uncompromised." Ms. Lianne Dehaye, Senior Vice President, and newly appointed Head of Chemin, said, "SUPA immediately enhances our ability to deliver complex data pipelines, whether it's fine-tuning models with domain-specific annotations or deploying PhD-level reviewers for critical edge-case scenarios. We enable intelligent task orchestration that scales reliably, maximizes throughput, and ensures high-quality outputs at every stage of the pipeline." Chemin, launched earlier this year, serves as a next-generation platform for AI enablement, offering services such as data collection, annotation, model evaluation, red-teaming, and prompt optimization. With SUPA's tech stack and elite talent network now integrated, Chemin is positioned to serve clients developing foundational models, enterprise AI copilots, and safety-critical systems. This strategic move places TDCX Group at the center of the AI enablement, a sector forecasted to become a multi-billion-dollar global market. As AI adoption accelerates among Fortune 500 companies, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to digitally native direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, Chemin, now fortified with SUPA's deep expertise, aims to be a critical enabler of safe, scalable, and sophisticated AI. TDCX Group will continue investing in an end-to-end AI services portfolio, anchored by robust CX infrastructure, gig-economy flexibility, and now, a deep bench of highly qualified human-in-the-loop talent. Hashtag: #TDCX #CustomerExperience The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. About TDCX Singapore-headquartered TDCX is a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) company that provides customer experience (CX) solutions, sales and digital marketing services, and content moderation for clients across various industries. These include digital advertising and social media, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, healthtech, media, technology and, travel and hospitality. With a focus on helping companies enable the future, TDCX's smart, scalable approach—driven by innovation and operational precision—positions it as a key partner for companies targeting tangible outcomes. With more than 20,000 employees across 39 locations worldwide, TDCX provides its clients with comprehensive coverage in Asia, Europe and the United States. For more information, please visit About Chemin Chemin is an AI-enablement company that empowers businesses to realize their AI ambitions. Specializing in large language models (LLMs), Chemin helps companies move faster, think bigger, and build smarter with clean data, cutting-edge infrastructure, and expert talent across 18 countries. Chemin's access to a vast network of industry specialists such as PhD level professionals provides companies with an edge in their AI-adoption journey. With a blend of human insight and machine intelligence, Chemin makes it possible to scale AI safely and meaningfully. For more information, please visit About SUPA SUPA is the definitive choice for building better AI with high-quality labeled data. SUPA's lightning-fast, AI-assisted labeling platform integrates seamlessly with a diverse workforce across APAC. SUPA has spent the last five years labeling over 100 million data points for unicorns, enterprises, and startups worldwide, helping them build award-winning AI products in healthcare, consumer retail, transport (AV), robotics, agriculture, construction, and more. For more information, please visit: TDCX
Malay Mail
12 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
TDCX Group acquires SUPA to supercharge AI-enablement platform Chemin
Acquisition strengthens Chemin's capabilities in complex AI data services amid global demand surge SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 20 June 2025 - TDCX Group, a leading provider of digital customer experience (CX) and growth services for global enterprises, today announced the acquisition of SUPA, a cutting-edge data labeling and annotation platform known for its agile, gig-powered delivery model. SUPA will be integrated into Chemin , TDCX Group's recently launched AI enablement subsidiary, to address the rising complexity of AI development and meet surging global demand for elite-level data artificial intelligence systems evolve rapidly — from large language models (LLMs) to autonomous agents — the nature of data-related work has grown more specialized and cognitively demanding. What was once simple tagging has shifted toward intricate data interpretation, nuanced prompt engineering, synthetic data validation, and multi-modal reasoning tasks increasingly performed by individuals with advanced academic training, including PhDs, engineers, linguists, and Laurent Junique, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, TDCX Group, said, "The future of customer experience is AI-powered, and AI itself runs on increasingly complex, curated data. SUPA brings us the right capabilities and talent frameworks to fuel that future. By embedding SUPA into Chemin, we're doubling down on our ability to support enterprise and frontier AI labs with world-class data operations."Mr. Mark Koh, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SUPA, said, "The future of AI is all about the quality of its decisions. At SUPA, we've built a platform that refines raw data into the fuel for smarter, more reliable AI systems. It's about injecting judgment and deep domain expertise at critical points in the data lifecycle. TDCX Group gives us the global platform to scale our model of precision and agility while keeping quality uncompromised."Ms. Lianne Dehaye, Senior Vice President, and newly appointed Head of Chemin, said, "SUPA immediately enhances our ability to deliver complex data pipelines, whether it's fine-tuning models with domain-specific annotations or deploying PhD-level reviewers for critical edge-case scenarios. We enable intelligent task orchestration that scales reliably, maximizes throughput, and ensures high-quality outputs at every stage of the pipeline."Chemin, launched earlier this year, serves as a next-generation platform for AI enablement, offering services such as data collection, annotation, model evaluation, red-teaming, and prompt optimization. With SUPA's tech stack and elite talent network now integrated, Chemin is positioned to serve clients developing foundational models, enterprise AI copilots, and safety-critical strategic move places TDCX Group at the center of the AI enablement, a sector forecasted to become a multi-billion-dollar global market. As AI adoption accelerates among Fortune 500 companies, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to digitally native direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, Chemin, now fortified with SUPA's deep expertise, aims to be a critical enabler of safe, scalable, and sophisticated Group will continue investing in an end-to-end AI services portfolio, anchored by robust CX infrastructure, gig-economy flexibility, and now, a deep bench of highly qualified human-in-the-loop #TDCX #CustomerExperience The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. About TDCX Singapore-headquartered TDCX is a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) company that provides customer experience (CX) solutions, sales and digital marketing services, and content moderation for clients across various industries. These include digital advertising and social media, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, healthtech, media, technology and, travel and hospitality. With a focus on helping companies enable the future, TDCX's smart, scalable approach—driven by innovation and operational precision—positions it as a key partner for companies targeting tangible outcomes. With more than 20,000 employees across 39 locations worldwide, TDCX provides its clients with comprehensive coverage in Asia, Europe and the United States. For more information, please visit About Chemin Chemin is an AI-enablement company that empowers businesses to realize their AI ambitions. Specializing in large language models (LLMs), Chemin helps companies move faster, think bigger, and build smarter with clean data, cutting-edge infrastructure, and expert talent across 18 countries. Chemin's access to a vast network of industry specialists such as PhD level professionals provides companies with an edge in their AI-adoption journey. With a blend of human insight and machine intelligence, Chemin makes it possible to scale AI safely and meaningfully. For more information, please visit About SUPA SUPA is the definitive choice for building better AI with high-quality labeled data. SUPA's lightning-fast, AI-assisted labeling platform integrates seamlessly with a diverse workforce across APAC. SUPA has spent the last five years labeling over 100 million data points for unicorns, enterprises, and startups worldwide, helping them build award-winning AI products in healthcare, consumer retail, transport (AV), robotics, agriculture, construction, and more. For more information, please visit:
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
OpenAI Phases Out Work with Scale AI
OpenAI is phasing out work with Scale AI, days after the data labeling service reached a deal with Meta. Bloomberg's Rachel Metz explains what's behind the shift with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on 'Bloomberg Tech.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Scale AI Rivals See Customer Demand Surge After Meta Investment
Alex Ratner was trying to get in a few hours of work after putting his kids to bed when news broke that Meta Platforms Inc. planned to invest billions of dollars in data-labeling startup Scale AI. Within minutes, Ratner, who runs a rival company called Snorkel AI, began fielding calls from his board about the chance to pick up clients worried about Scale's independence. Then came the inquiries from possible customers — dozens of them, he said, resulting in 'tens of millions of dollars' in potential deals at various stages of completion over the past week. 'Every responsible LLM developer is going to be making a lot of moves to diversify their vendor portfolio,' Ratner said, using an acronym for large language models. 'There will be some major shifts and major openings.'
