Handshake co-founder Garrett Lord explains why having an established student/alumni network gives Handshake a defensive advantage over generic AI data labeling competitors.
Opinion
Lord: AI models no longer need generalist annotators, only domain experts
“But really what's happened is the models have gotten so good that the generalists are no longer needed. Like what they really need is experts, experts across every area that the models are focused on.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lord: Humans will be needed to train AI for the next decade
“And I think for as long as models are improving, humans will be needed in this process. And when you talk to the lead scientists and researchers at these labs, it's like the data types will evolve and what they're trying to capture and collect, but you know, t…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A leading AI data competitor spends tens of millions monthly on ads
“One of the leading players has like, they have like 200 recruiters. It's like unsustainable. There are like 200 people on LinkedIn sending individual messages to acquire these people because there's no brand, there's no trust. They spend, you know, they're spe…”
Insight
Frontier AI labs have practically unlimited demand for high-quality data
“In this market, there's essentially like unlimited demand. Like if you can produce high quality volumes of data you most likely will be able to sell whatever you produce.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lord: Synthetic data will not dominate frontier AI training
“Synthetic data has a role to play and like in verifiable domains, but like what we consistently hear from companies is like, you know, their synthetic data is not going to dominate.”
Assertion Supported
Lord: AI pre-training gains asymptoted 18 to 24 months ago
“And about 18 months ago, 24 months ago, we started to really see, like, an asymptoting of gains coming from, because they had essentially, like, sucked up all of the knowledge on the internet. And so labs really shifted towards most of the gains now coming fro…”