An incredible fraud case involving an artificial intelligence company came to light from reports by Bloomberg and The Times of India.
London-based Builder.ai (valued at $1,5 billion) was backed by Microsoft and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, but filed for bankruptcy after reports that its AI app development platform was operated by... about 700 Indian engineers pretending to be artificial intelligence.
The company, which had raised over $445 million from investors including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority, promised to make software development “as easy as ordering a pizza,” through an AI assistant called Natasha.
However, the company's super technology was a showcase: Behind the screens were Indian programmers who manually wrote the code according to customer requirements, while the company promoted their work as the result of AI technology.
Founder Sachin Dev Duggal had promised $220 million in sales to investors, but an independent audit revealed that actual revenue was just $50 million.
The scam was not new. Back in 2019, the Wall Street Journal had exposed Builder.ai's dubious claims of using artificial intelligence, reporting that the platform relied almost exclusively on outside partners.
A former employee, Robert Holdheim, sued the company for $5 million in 2019, claiming he was fired for complaining that Builder.ai's technology "was materially misleading."
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
