Scale AI is facing its third lawsuit over alleged labor practices in just over a month, this time from workers claiming they suffered psychological trauma from reviewing disturbing content without adequate safeguards.
Scale, which was valued at $13.8 billion last year, relies on workers it categorizes as contractors to do tasks like rating AI model responses.
Earlier this month, a former worker sued alleging she was effectively paid below the minimum wage and misclassified as a contractor. A complaint alleging similar issues was also filed in December 2024.
This latest complaint, filed January 17 in the Northern District of California, is a class action complaint that focuses on the psychological harms allegedly suffered by 6 people who worked on Scale’s platform Outlier.
The plaintiffs claim they were forced to write disturbing prompts about violence and abuse – including child abuse – without proper psychological support, suffering retaliation when they sought mental health counsel. They say they were misled about the job’s nature during hiring and ended up with mental health issues like PTSD due to their work. They are seeking the creation of a medical monitoring program along with new safety standards, plus unspecified damages and attorney fees.
One of the plaintiffs, Steve McKinney, is the lead plaintiff in that separate December 2024 complaint against Scale. The same law firm, Clarkson Law Firm of Malibu, California, is representing plaintiffs in both complaints.
Clarkson Law Firm previously filed a class action suit against OpenAI and Microsoft over allegedly using stolen data that was dismissed after being criticized by a district judge for its length and content. Referencing that case, Joe Osborne, a spokesperson for Scale AI, criticized Clarkson Law Firm and said Scale plans “to defend ourselves vigorously.”
“Clarkson Law Firm has previously – and unsuccessfully – gone after innovative tech companies with legal claims that were summarily dismissed in court. A federal court judge found that one of their previous complaints was ‘needlessly long’ and contained ‘largely irrelevant, distracting, or redundant information,’” Osborne told TechCrunch.
Osborne said that Scale complies with all laws and regulations and has “numerous safeguards in place” to protect its contributors like the ability to opt-out at any time, advanced notice of sensitive content, and access to health and wellness programs. Osborne added that Scale does not take on projects that may include child sexual abuse material.
In response, Glenn Danas, partner at Clarkson Law Firm, told TechCrunch that Scale AI has been “forcing workers to view gruesome and violent content to train these AI models” and has failed to ensure a safe workplace.
“We must hold these big tech companies like Scale AI accountable or workers will continue to be exploited to train this unregulated technology for profit,” Danas said.
