$1.5 Billion AI Company That Reportedly Used No Actual AI Goes Belly Up

https://brobible.com/culture/article/ai-company-builder-bankrupt/

not only created a fake AI company that was ‘all humans, no intelligence,'” he also “dared to falsely report 300% revenue to investors.”

Name: builder.ai

582 points · 49 comments · view on lemmy.world

49 Comments

Deflated0ne@lemmy.world · 212 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Most honest AI company.

cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de · 85 pts · 1y

Not only that, it provided job for people rather than cutting them

ininewcrow@lemmy.ca · 138 pts · 1y (4 replies)

Isn't this the model Capitalist?

It doesn't matter what they offer. It doesn't matter what they build. It doesn't matter if it's real or not. It doesn't matter if it is beneficial or not. It doesn't matter if it is ethical or not. It doesn't matter if it is moral or not. It doesn't matter if it is respectful or not.

All that matters is that it made money.

That is the sign of a true Capitalist.

Congratulations on winning that contest.

nodiratime@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1y

Model growth company right there. They forgot the block chain and some NTFs, then everything would surely have worked out....

Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 23 pts · 1y (1 reply)
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ininewcrow@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 1y

They play the game as long as possible.

It's like a religion at this point in history.

If you have enough people who blindly believe in the whole thing, no matter how absurd, everything continues to grow and expand. Once enough people lose faith, then the whole system comes crashing down.

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1y

Isn’t this the model Capitalist?

No, because it paid its workers.

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 126 pts · 1y (5 replies)

AI company

Uses no AI

Honestly, the smartest thing they could do

Bilks investors for $1.5B and then just walks off with the money

Incredible. Who did they bilk?

Microsoft

Lolz.

Tangent5280@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 1y

Microsoft gets shafted

lol. lmao even.

Jimmycakes@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Don't forget softbank if there's money to piss away they are always first in live

boonhet@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y

But but Masayoshi Softbank was put on this earth to bring about AI Singularity!

Dragonstaff@leminal.space · 14 pts · 1y

AI -> Actually Indians

hypeerror@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 1y

The eco friendly AI. They give you an incorrect wall of bullshit but don't need a dedicated power plant to make it happen.

AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space · 55 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Much of “AI” is labour arbitrage, delegating the work to workers in countries with lower wages and weaker labour protections while pretending that the machine that interposes between them is doing it. There’s a joke that AI stands for “absent Indians”.

AstralPath@lemmy.ca · 34 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Isnt it "actually Indians"?

morrowind@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 1y

I've seen it as "An Indian"

ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

Altogether Infosys

markstos@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Years ago there was a voice to text transcription service sold as automated that worked by people listening to your voicemails and typing them out.

barneypiccolo@lemm.ee · 15 pts · 1y

That still exists, they run TV ads all the time. The ads even have print that says that someone listens to the callers and types out what they say.

Railcar8095@lemm.ee · 6 pts · 1y

We had 100+ classifying text by hand for a customer on India. The costumer thought it was Deep Learning back then.

Lyrl@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y

Also see the "autonomous taxi" services that, when encountering anything outside the limited scope their programming can handle, are remotely operated by human drivers.

andybytes@programming.dev · 33 pts · 1y (4 replies)

AI is a fucking buzzword

cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 1y (1 reply)

It's really good at something. The MBAs just haven't figured it out yet.

Ebber@lemmings.world · 5 pts · 1y

Like anything with hype, it can funnel money

ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y

AAI

supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · -3 pts · 1y

The good thing is there are some nice Als out there, I suggest go talking to one even the weird polka one

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Reject tech, return to mechanical Turk

josefo@leminal.space · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

I expected the Turk mentioned earlier here, thanks

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

I too felt the compulsion

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 27 pts · 1y

all humans, no intelligence

Maybe hire smart humans instead of dumb ones 🤷🏻‍♂️

TomMasz@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 1y

The planet is healing.

tabular@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 1y (5 replies)

A billion dollars is a worthless amount of money, apparently. Do investors have no loved ones?

boonhet@lemm.ee · 12 pts · 1y (2 replies)

1.5 billion is enough to give everyone in my country about a grand. Won't change most people's lives, but I bet it would help thousands of people out of a debt cycle and a lot of people could pull the trigger on some appliance or maybe a car repair that they've been putting off. Estonia isn't poor, but it's far from rich, even after all those startups.

Hobo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Just rename Estonia to EstoniAI and people will apparently send you $1.5 billion no questions asked.

boonhet@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y

Why do that when you can instead partner with ClosedAI for education, meaning we can spend government money on AI bs

desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 1y

wo needs loved ones when you have money?

ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y

You don't get to investor levels of money with empathy.

misterdoctor@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Can’t wait for the investigative podcast that explains how fucked up this place was

emergence_trailblazer@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 1y

Make it a Netflix series like the one on Elisabeth Holmes, and I'm in !

brown567@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 1y

"All humans, no intelligence"

Yeah seems like it bud

_cnt0@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 1y

To be fair, intelligence isn't found in anything marketed as "AI". This one being a scam using humans, actually featured intelligence.

PixelatedSaturn@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Funny. I'm thinking some people made a lot of money.

On the other hand, I think Lemmy folks would be pleased, that an ai company didn't harm the environment 😀

MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 1y

I don't know how Lemmy users would react if Helion Energy achieves its goal before 2028.

dinckelman@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y
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RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y

Somebody might actually get in trouble here for pissing off rich people. Regardless, the common investor will just get hosed.

brown567@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 1y

Cool motive, still investment fraud XD

4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Archive Link or alternative source? This crappy site refuses to load due to my AdBlock

Occhioverde@feddit.it · 4 pts · 1y
kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Which Adblock are extension are you using ( Adblock Plus by any chance?)? I just tried on mobile Firefox with uBlock Origin and rendered fine.

4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 1y

Interestingly it loads today. I have AdAway on my phone and PiHole in my home network

toastmeister@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1y
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 1y
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