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Scale AI is facing its third causa over allege labor practice injust over a month , this clock time from doer claiming they suffered psychological harm from reviewing disturbing content without enough safeguards .
Scale , which wasvalued at $ 13.8 billionlast yr , relies on workers it categorizes as contractors to do undertaking like rate AI modelling response .
sooner this calendar month , a former worker action alleging she was effectively paid below the minimum wage and misclassified as a contractor . A complaint allege similar number was also register inDecember 2024 .
Thislatest complaint , charge January 17 in the Northern District of California , is a division action ailment that focalize on the psychological harms allegedly suffered by six people who worked on Scale ’s platform Outlier .
The plaintiffs arrogate they were impel to write touch command prompt about vehemence and abuse — including shaver abuse — without right psychological backup , suffer revenge when they sought genial health counseling . They say they were misled about the job ’s nature during hiring and ended up with mental health issues like PTSD due to their employment . They are look for the creation of a medical monitoring program along with new safety standards , plus unspecified damages and lawyer fees .
One of the complainant , Steve McKinney , is the lead complainant in that separateDecember 2024 complaintagainst Scale . The same police firm , Clarkson Law Firm of Malibu , California , is represent plaintiff in both complaint .
Clarkson Law Firm antecedently filed a class action suit against OpenAI and Microsoft over allegedly using stolen data — a cause that wasdismissedafter being criticized by a district evaluator for its length and cognitive content . Referencing that case , Joe Osborne , a spokesperson for Scale AI , criticise Clarkson Law Firm and articulate Scale plans “ to defend ourselves vigorously . ”
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“ Clarkson Law Firm has antecedently — and unsuccessfully — gone after forward-looking technical school company with legal claims that were summarily sack in court . A Union courtyard jurist found that one of their previous complaint was ‘ needlessly long ’ and contained ‘ largely irrelevant , distracting , or excess info , ’ ” Osborne told TechCrunch .
Osborne said that shell complies with all laws and regularization and has “ numerous safeguard in place ” to protect its contributors like the ability to opt - out at any time , sophisticated notice of sensitive content , and memory access to health and wellness programme . Osborne added that Scale does not take on project that may include child intimate insult material .
In response , Glenn Danas , married person at Clarkson Law Firm , told TechCrunch that Scale AI has been “ forcing workers to view gruesome and trigger-happy content to rail these AI models ” and has give out to ensure a safe workplace .
“ We must hold these big tech companies like Scale AI accountable or workers will uphold to be exploited to train this unregulated technology for net income , ” Danas enunciate .
