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Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

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Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#61

Post by martinald »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #49
dmazin wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is this turned out not to be true. People were used to label stuff for new stores, but the actual implementation did not depend on some sort of fakery.

I imagine it's possible the truth was somewhere in between. But if it worked, why did they stop using it in their grocery stores after putting so much money into it?

In the UK at least the grocery stores are completely empty. I've barely seen anyone in them. Bizarrely they are shutting loads down in London but opening new ones at the same time. Absolutely no idea what the strategy is, they must be throwing out the majority of the fresh food stock they have.

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#63

Post by xkcd-sucks »

fazkan wrote: post #14

This is so weird, its not that hard to actually build an app builder. There are multiple open-source repos (bolt etc), they could have just paid their "AI engineer" to actually build an AI engineer. Shameless plug, but we built ( https://v1.slashml.com ), in roughly 2 weeks. Granted its not as mature, but we don't have billions :)

It's plausible they started with a typical software consultancy and its crappy in house app builder scripts, and reformed it as an AI thing in order to inflate its value?

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#64

Post by pyman »

zachncst wrote: post #62

Isn’t this what they always tell startups to do? Fake it and get product market fit. I recall the stories of task rabbit where the founder was delivering all the meals.

See: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240611122778/en/Bui...

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#66

Post by pyman »

ethbr1 wrote: post #59
nikcub wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect the builder.ai story will break into the mainstream via a book / documentary. There are some insane details and it's the first large-scale AI hype failure - which people are hungry to get the details on - and some big names involved. Another failure of dd - I really wonder how high-profile investors pour hundreds of millions into a co without doing something simple like ordering an app using a burner account…

> I really wonder how high-profile investors pour hundreds of millions into a co without doing something simple like ordering an app using a burner account. You'd think that if you're investing $1M+, there's budget for at least getting an intern / assistant to do that.

Microsoft invested £250M in Inflection AI, £250M in Builder.ai, and has backed several other companies working on LLMs. They’ve been placing strategic bets across the AI space, but only a few of those companies actually had the talent, infrastructure, and funding needed to build real models.

The VP of AI was Craig Saunders, the same person who helped create Amazon Alexa. The problem is, they ran out of money. $500 million sounds like a lot, but it's not even close to what you need to build and train a real LLM. You need billions. Most people just don't realise that.

See: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240611122778/en/Bui...

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#67

Post by burnte »

Supermancho wrote: post #56
burnte wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalis does no such thing, the market available to the company does. Every problem people blame on "capitalism" is solvable with appropriate regulation. That's literally the point of regulation, too. Dozens of other countries show you can have a vibrant economy that isn't beholden to a few billionaires.

> Capitalis does no such thing, I think it's obvious that this is incorrect. Part of regulation is to try and curtail grifting. It is not possible to prevent it and is the tendency of the system.

Not being able to eliminate it doesn't mean controlling it is impossible or that we shouldn't try. In any system there will be cheaters, it's how you deal with it that counts. A well regulated economy makes wealth spread around.

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#68

Post by downrightmike »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #63
fazkan wrote: post #14

This is so weird, its not that hard to actually build an app builder. There are multiple open-source repos (bolt etc), they could have just paid their "AI engineer" to actually build an AI engineer. Shameless plug, but we built ( https://v1.slashml.com ), in roughly 2 weeks. Granted its not as mature, but we don't have billions :)

It's plausible they started with a typical software consultancy and its crappy in house app builder scripts, and reformed it as an AI thing in order to inflate its value?

That'd be shameful, and a complete disgrace, it'd be like adding "bitcoin" to your company name or 10k fillings a few years ago to boost your stock

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#69

Post by fazkan »

hnuser123456 wrote: post #60
fazkan wrote: post #14

This is so weird, its not that hard to actually build an app builder. There are multiple open-source repos (bolt etc), they could have just paid their "AI engineer" to actually build an AI engineer. Shameless plug, but we built ( https://v1.slashml.com ), in roughly 2 weeks. Granted its not as mature, but we don't have billions :)

Nice, I'll try this out tonight.

thanks, do ping me if you run into any issues faizank@slashml.com

Re: Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'?

#70

Post by fazkan »

downrightmike wrote: post #68
xkcd-sucks wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's plausible they started with a typical software consultancy and its crappy in house app builder scripts, and reformed it as an AI thing in order to inflate its value?

That'd be shameful, and a complete disgrace, it'd be like adding "bitcoin" to your company name or 10k fillings a few years ago to boost your stock

I mean zapier is also calling their workflows, "agents", I remember someone ranting about it on twitter.
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