Scale AIās $14B Security Leak and $95/Hour Math Nerds Showdown
Mercor CEO Brendan Foody threw shade harder than a solar eclipse at Scale AI, accusing them of losing focus on product quality despite their whale-sized $14.3 billion Meta cash infusion in June 2025. Apparently, Scale was juggling layoffs of 200 staff and 500 contractors, all after accidentally making confidential AI training docs as accessible as a public Google Doc party invite. Mercor, founded just last year, boasts average contractor pay of $95 an hour ā triple Scaleās meager $30āand hunts elite annotators like Math Olympiad champs and Rhodes Scholars instead of your run-of-the-mill starbucks poet. Meanwhile, Scaleās interim CEO Jason Droege admits they drown in 'layers, bureaucracy, and unhelpful confusion,' which sounds like every bad Zoom meeting ever, but still claims data quality is soaring. Spoiler alert: those 'confidential' docs were more like public diaries for billion-dollar AI secrets.
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Scale AI got a $14.3B Meta bailout but proudly leaked secret docs on Google Docs and choked on bureaucracy while Mercor pays annotators like royalty and recruits Math Olympians. Meanwhile, Scaleās idea of quality sounds like my inbox after Monday morning.
Scale AIās masterpiece: losing $14.3 billion in quality and security, but at least their contractors still get paid $30/hour to Google Docs their secrets out like itās open mic night.
Forget AI taking overāScale AIās real talent is turning confidentiality into open-source, cutting 700 staff, and inventing new levels of corporate chaos worthy of a Netflix drama.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 9/16/2025 | Author: Shubhangi Goel
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