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

ibtimes.co.uk

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

#71

Post by pyman »

fakedang wrote: post #4
mountainriver wrote: post #2

Do folks think that this was utter negligence by the VCs, or just a pump and dump?

Not just VCs. Microsoft was an investor too.

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'?

#73

Post by seanp2k2 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #52
andrei_says_ wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or “auto pilot”

Auto pilot is pretty good at driving within the same lane. Just like a plane pilot needs to do the more complicated stuff like take off and landing, one can expect the same with autopilot (just changing lanes and stopping at lights or stop signs or turning). Full self driving is the mislabeled one. Should be “90% self driving”.

Not when that lane is the HOV lane and traffic is going (speed limit + 15mph). You can always spot the white Tesla on 101 doing the speed limit in the HOV lane during rush hour with a mile of cars behind them and a mile of nothing in front.

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

#74

Post by tacheiordache »

pyman wrote: post #64
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...

You say that as if Amazon Alexa was some kind of amazing product. t succeeded because it has Amazon backing and it's kindof a crappy product.

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

#76

Post by seanp2k2 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #54
mjmsmith wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure Tesla is the poster child for non-grifters in the context of AI.

How are they grifters? Tesla gave us FSD to try for free for a month, twice now. If you don't like its performance, don't pay.

Elon Musk Predicts Level 4 Or 5 Full Self-Driving ‘Later This Year’ For the Tenth Year In A Row

(2023) https://www.theautopian.com/elon-musk-predicts-level-4-or-5-...

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/grift

    ways of getting money dishonestly that involve tricking someone
So, they got money dishonestly by tricking someone into buying their cars based on the belief that they'd offer real full self driving now or very soon, then they didn't actually deliver that.

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

#77

Post by mrtksn »

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.

IMHO you are not supposed to fake your core value proposition when taking money. If the AI part was an implementation detail probably wouldn’t have been a problem.

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

#78

Post by trilbyglens »

pyman wrote: post #66
ethbr1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 mi…

This is why I think ai is basically the death of startups as we know them. Only big players can even take a swing. No more underdog garage startups, unless you're just downstream getting dorty bath water from the big boys.

Ai all around is purely about consolidation of power and money. It's bad for workers and ultimately probably bad for the startup world and competition more broadly.

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

#80

Post by monksy »

ricardobeat wrote: post #79

So.. where did the $450M go? A team of 700 developers in India built over eight years would have cost a fraction of that.

The Chai budget is completely justifiable expense. (Probably more so than the difference being run away with)
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