Recently, Scale AI has filed a lawsuit against its former sales employee and competitor Mercor, accusing the employee of stealing over 100 confidential documents related to customer strategies and other proprietary information before leaving. According to Scale AI's complaint, the employee, named Eugene Ling, attempted to pitch to one of Scale's key customers before joining Mercor.
Image source note: The image is AI-generated, provided by the licensing service Midjourney
The lawsuit accuses Mercor of misappropriating trade secrets and brings breach of contract claims against Ling. Scale AI stated that the stolen documents contained specific data that could help Mercor serve its largest client. In the complaint, Scale mentioned that this client is referred to as "Client A," and if Mercor successfully secures this business, it could bring millions of dollars in contracts.
Mercor's co-founder Surya Midha denied the allegations, stating that Mercor did not use any confidential data from Scale, although he acknowledged that Ling might have had some documents. Midha pointed out that Mercor is particularly careful not to use Scale's trade secrets when hiring employees who left Scale, and is currently investigating whether Ling retained relevant files in his personal Google Drive.
Midha also mentioned that Mercor had proactively contacted Scale six days ago, offering to have Ling destroy the relevant documents or seek other solutions, but has not yet received a response from Scale.
Ling expressed his views on social media regarding the incident, stating that he felt sorry for the Scale team. He said that after leaving, Scale had contacted him about the files in his personal drive and asked if he could delete them, and he was waiting for Scale's guidance to properly resolve the matter.
Although the details of the lawsuit do not clearly identify "Client A," the case shows that Scale takes the competitive threat from Mercor very seriously. According to a previous report by TechCrunch, despite Meta's investment of $1.43 billion in Scale, its core team TBD Labs continues to use other large language model (LLM) data training service providers like Mercor.
Mercor's rise in the field of large language model training has been attributed to its hiring of many content experts (typically PhDs) to train LLM data in specific areas. This background has given Mercor a certain competitive advantage in the industry.
Key points:
🔍 Scale AI sues former employee Eugene Ling and his new company Mercor, accusing them of stealing confidential documents.
⚖️ Mercor denies using Scale's data and offers a solution proactively.
💼 The case reflects Scale's high concern about the competitive threat from Mercor.
