ScaleAI, a new American AI unicorn, provides data labeling services. The US government and OpenAI are ScaleAI’s customers. Alexandr Wang, CEO of ScaleAI, advocates a concept called "MEI" and advocates that talent recruitment should be based on "elite" rather than the "diversity" advocated by Silicon Valley.

ScaleAI adopts "elitist" policies, is Silicon Valley no longer politically correct?

Alexandr Wang recently sparked discussion in the Silicon Valley technology industry by publishing an internal letter on Scale’s recruitment policy. The content mainly discusses the transfer of recruitment policies, and advocates not using the general DEI concept (diversity, equity, and inclusion), which means diversity, equality, and inclusion, but the elitist MEI concept (Merit, Excellence, Intelligence), which means Merit, excellence, wisdom. Alexandr Wang explains that meritocracy is not inconsistent with diversity. A true meritocracy will naturally produce diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

Today we’ve formalized an important hiring policy at Scale. We hire for MEI: merit, excellence, and intelligence.This is the email I’ve shared with our @scale_AI team.———————————————————MERITOCRACY AT SCALEIn the wake of our fundraise, I’ve been getting a lot of questions…

— Alexandr Wang (@alexandr_wang) June 13, 2024

What is DEI? What is MEI? What's the difference between the two?

  • DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion; diversity, equality, inclusion), used in talent recruitment, needs to cover different backgrounds, experiences, races, sexual orientations, and physical and mental disabilities, and provide diverse recruitment opportunities to ensure that candidates can compete with equal Compete under conditions and tolerate every employee, so that employees who serve the company feel valued and can realize their potential.

  • MEI (Merit, Excellence, Intelligence; Merit, Excellence, Intelligence) focuses on recruiting candidates based on their individual abilities, excellence, and intelligence, ensuring that the company can recruit top talents and improve the organization's effectiveness and long-term development.

MEI's recruiting model attracts top talent and continuously and long-term improves organizational competitiveness. However, in this way, some groups may not be fully given the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities due to various factors. DEI ensures that people from different backgrounds have equal opportunities to compete and can help companies create a more inclusive and diverse corporate culture.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have mixed views

After Alexandr Wang tweeted, many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs deeply agreed with Alexandr’s remarks, including Musk and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Although the tweet was released, more and more people left comments pointing out that Alexandr’s post did not take into account the concept of “employing people based on their talents”, which is subjective. Some discussions believe that Alexandr Wang’s “MEI” is mocking “DEI”.

From black human rights to the gender movement, diversity is deeply embedded in society, but is it really so?

Due to personal backgrounds such as race, sexual orientation, gender, etc., they are often overlooked because of their vulnerability. Since 2020, many companies and KOLs have promoted DEI so that employees from all walks of life, regardless of background, can be better included in the recruitment process.

However, from 2023 technology industry recruitment data, the number of new women joining the industry has dropped to 12% from 36% in 2022, and people of color who hold management-level positions such as VP only account for 38% of the total. It is clear from the data that in the technology industry, women and people of color have significantly weaker job rights and opportunities.

Judging from the results, the technology industry has not actually created greater tolerance and diversity by advocating DEI, but has become closer to MEI. In a world where competition is fierce and the economy is slowing down, companies are also facing many practical considerations. The old version of "political correctness" may find a new balance in the trade-off between "MEI and DEI."

This article From DEI or MEI: Why does the recruitment policy of AI unicorn ScaleAI make Musk and Coinbase nod frequently? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.