Feed: Slashdot
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Title: AI Startup Revealed To Be 700 Indian Employees Pretending To Be
Chatbots

Link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/06/03/195422...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Latin Times: A once-hyped AI
startup backed by Microsoft has filed for bankruptcy after it was revealed
that its so-called artificial intelligence was actually hundreds of human
workers in India pretending to be chatbots. Builder.ai, a London-based
company previously valued at $1.5 billion, marketed its platform as an AI-
powered solution that made building apps as simple as ordering pizza. Its
virtual assistant, "Natasha," was supposed to generate software using
artificial intelligence. In reality, nearly 700 engineers in India were
manually coding customer requests behind the scenes, the Times of India
reported. The ruse began to collapse in May when lender Viola Credit seized
$37 million from the company's accounts, uncovering that Builder.ai had
inflated its 2024 revenue projections by 300%. An audit revealed the company
generated just $50 million in revenue, far below the $220 million it claimed
to investors. A Wall Street Journal report from 2019 had already questioned
Builder.ai's AI claims, and a former executive sued the company that same
year for allegedly misleading investors and overstating its technical
capabilities. Despite that, the company raised over $445 million from big
names including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority. Builder.ai's
collapse has triggered a federal investigation in the U.S., with prosecutors
in New York requesting financial documents and customer records.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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