Utkarsh Amitabh says he definitely wasn’t in the market for a new job in January 2025, when data labeling startup micro1 approached him about joining its network of human experts who help companies train artificial intelligence models.
The U.K.-based, 34-year-old entrepreneur already had a busy schedule as an author, university lecturer, founder and CEO of global mentorship and careers platform Network Capital, and student working toward a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He also had a newborn at home, he tells CNBC Make It.
Ultimately, Amitabh agreed to take on the added role, admitting that “intellectual curiosity drew me in,” he says. The prospect of training enterprise AI models felt like a perfect fit with his own background in “business strategy, financial modeling and tech,” he adds.
Indeed, micro1 says it recruits experts with deep knowledge across a wide landscape of specialties, from doctors and lawyers to engineers. A self-described “deep generalist,” Amitabh certainly seems to fit the bill.
He has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, a master’s degree in moral philosophy, and spent more than six years working on business development for Microsoft in a role that focused on cloud computing and AI partnerships. His past writing includes a book on “the side-hustle revolution” and a master’s thesis on how AI will affect the nature of achievement.
