Alexandr Wang, the child prodigy who controls artificial intelligence from the shadows

At 27 , Alexandr Wang doesn't need to be a media celebrity to have more influence than many of Silicon Valley 's most popular moguls.

From the shadows, this mathematical prodigy born in Los Alamos, New Mexico—the same place where the atomic bomb was developed—commands one of the key cogs in the global artificial intelligence machine. His company, Scale AI , doesn't design language models like ChatGPT , but it does something perhaps more crucial: it processes and labels the data these systems need to learn .

And in the AI ​​universe, whoever controls the data, controls the power .

Scale AI is responsible for taking huge volumes of information —from images and text to classified records—and converting them into organized datasets , ready to train machines with maximum precision .

That task, which may sound technical or even minor, is actually the foundation stone of any functional AI model. Without properly structured data, algorithms don't work . Thus, Wang became an essential cog in the wheel for the tech giants leading the artificial intelligence race today.

Born into a family of physicists working for US military laboratories , Wang grew up surrounded by equations, theories, and state secrets.

By the age of 17, he was already competing in the U.S. Physics Olympiad and decided to skip his last two years of high school to pursue a career in mathematics at MIT . But his time at the prestigious institute was brief: in 2016, at just 19, he dropped out to launch Scale AI .

The premise on which he founded the company was simple, yet disruptive: improving the quality of data labeling for machine learning systems. Rather than obsessing over speed, like many in the industry, Wang understood that the real difference lay in feeding the algorithms better .

“AI isn’t magic. It’s only as good as the data you give it, ” he explained in an interview with Forbes . And by that logic, his company quickly became an indispensable infrastructure for companies like OpenAI , Meta , Google , NVIDIA , and even the U.S. Department of Defense .

Since then, Scale AI has collaborated on intelligence, surveillance, and electronic warfare projects . Among its most significant contracts are combat simulations for the U.S. Army and drone training programs for the Air Force.

In 2023, the company signed a $250 million agreement with the Pentagon as part of the Data-Centric AI initiative, whose goal is clear: to prevent China from leading the development of artificial intelligence . “We want to make sure the United States doesn’t lose this race,” Wang said during a congressional hearing.

However, not everything is flawless. A few weeks ago, it was leaked that Scale AI had stored confidential data from Meta and xAI —Elon Musk's company—in public Google Drive documents , accessible to anyone with a link.

Although the company reacted quickly, the episode raised alarms about the fragility of a structure that concentrates critical information from half of Silicon Valley.

But far from weakening its position, the incident was followed by a high-calibre strategic move: Meta bought 49% of Scale AI for $14.3 billion and placed Wang at the head of its new superintelligence division .

That unit will be tasked with creating general artificial intelligence models that compete with the most advanced developments at OpenAI or Anthropic. With this move, Wang has gone from being just a data refiner to also becoming one of the architects of the future of AI .

Despite his growing influence, Wang prefers to stay out of the spotlight . He doesn't have a public X (formerly Twitter) account, gives TED Talks, or give promotional interviews.

Those who worked with him describe him as a detail-obsessed individual . According to The Information , he personally oversees the most sensitive datasets leaving his company and has turned down several takeover bids to maintain complete control over their creation.

His worldview also breaks with traditional molds. “I don't want children until the brain-computer interface is ready,” he told Wired . “There's no point in bringing life into a world we haven't finished building yet.” The disturbing and revealing phrase encapsulates his obsession with human perfection through technology.

In an age where algorithms determine the value of a home, the diagnosis of a disease, the outcome of a court ruling, or the strategy of a military operation, data is much more than zeros and ones: it is power . And Wang, without fanfare or ostentation, is the one who transforms it into the raw material that moves the world.

With information from La Vanguardia.