AI Company Turns Out To Be 700 Indian Engineers and Zero Actual AI
Builder.ai, a London-based tech company once valued at $1.5 billion, has officially gone bust, and not because the robots got smarter. Turns out, there were no robots.
The company’s entire brand was based on its supposed AI tool, “Natasha,” which promised fast, intelligent app development. Microsoft even dropped $455 million into the company based on that promise. But according to a recent audit, Natasha wasn’t some brilliant algorithm. It was 700 engineers in India doing the actual work.
And if that wasn’t enough, Builder.ai also lied about its financials. It claimed $220 million in sales but only pulled in $50 million. That lie caught up with them fast: a lender seized $37 million, the company couldn’t pay its workers, and just like that, bankruptcy.
Builder.ai posted a final message on LinkedIn, blaming “financial issues” and “past decisions,” which is one way to say “we lied about being an AI company for eight years.”
If you’re keeping score: AI, zero. Human engineers, apparently still undefeated but bankrupt.
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