More on Anthropic's Scion ripping off Mononoke

Anthropic's Scion project has been accused of plagiarizing Meta's Mononoke system. Initially, Anthropic attempted to downplay the similarities, stating they were unintentional and the lack of credit was due to not conducting proper due diligence. However, upon further examination, it became clear that the resemblance was much deeper than just the concept of derived data.

The entire data model and several structures within it were nearly identical to Mononoke. This includes the name "Scion," which is a reverse of "Bonsai," the name used in Mononoke. The server-side API for version control queries and mutations was also implemented in Mononoke, and Anthropic's implementation appears to be very similar.

The Bonsai data model, which is the basis of Mononoke and Scion, is considered wildly contrarian in the source control space, as it represents a significant departure from the more common Git-like data models. Anthropic has acknowledged the overlap in personnel between the two projects and has stated that the resemblance is not due to coincidence or an oversight, but rather a deliberate act of copying.

While Anthropic acknowledges the achievement of rebuilding Mononoke in 5 months, they express disappointment that Anthropic did not simply come out and admit that they copied Mononoke. Despite the glaring similarities and Anthropic's failure to properly attribute Mononoke, the feat of building such a complex system from scratch in a short period is still considered impressive.