Builder.ai Collapses: $1.5B 'AI' Startup Exposed as 'Indians'? • Hacker News Board

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

#281

Post by pyman » Sun, Jun 08, 2025, 11:25 AM UTC

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #268

dang wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I called it lurid because it's sensational and yes, because of the implicit slur. (Not the most precise use of the word lurid because it lacks the ghastly/uncanny quality - https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=lurid , but I couldn't think of a better one.)

Thanks, I thought that might be it (re "lurid"). How about "vulgar"? Ah, too archaic maybe?

Boring fraud VS Wild AI hype

- Proven: Builder.ai collapsed after fabricating revenue.

- Unsubstantiated: The claim that Indian coders disguised as AI is mostly hearsay, not backed by documents or insiders [1].

- Marketing vs reality: They marketed features as AI-assisted, not AI-generated code. Two completely different things.

- Bottom line: The real scandal is financial fraud, not a fake‑AI front.

---

[1] Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/setting-record-straight-real-...

Yash Mittal, ex-Associate Director of Product @ Builder.ai

He describes a sophisticated AI-automated development pipeline, including:

- Requirement gathering via conversational AI

- Auto-generated features, user stories and test cases

- Graph neural nets building prototypes

- AI-based design and code generation

- Quality checks were handled by humans, not deception.

- Human developers never pretended to be AI.

---

Please, let's keep the information here reliable. We don't want this forum turning into another Reddit. Thanks to everyone who took the time to investigate and share evidence or real experiences.

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

#282

Post by tennseven » Mon, Jun 09, 2025, 8:15 PM UTC

pyman wrote: post #161

rafram wrote: post #7

Article from a slightly better source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/how...

This is fake news. Builder.ai, like any other dev shop, had clients and was building apps using developers in India, pretty much like Infosys or any other Indian dev shop. Nothing wrong with that. From what I read online, the real issue was "Natasha", their virtual assistant powered by a dedicated foundation model. They ran out of money before it got anywhere.

No, the "real issue" is that Builder.ai was swapping money with a friendly firm to fraudulently inflate sales. You and everyone else claiming "fake news" on this thing are completely clueless, as evidenced by the fact that the company has filed for bankruptcy.

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

#283

Post by aprilthird2021 » Tue, Jun 10, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

pyman wrote: post #269

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They admitted themselves to this fraud. Try reading the article you are posting under: > Less than two months ago, Builder.ai admitted to revising down core sales numbers and engaging auditors to inspect its financials for the past two years. This came amidst concerns from former employees who suggested sales performance had been inflated during prior investor briefings. It doesn't get more textbook fraud than lying…

Yes, round-tripping is considered fraud in business. The CEO and CFO committed fraud. That has been proven, and there is no doubt about it. But the article also claims they misled investors about the technology they were using, and that part is false. It even mocked Indian developers for working as programmers and pretending to be machines, which is obviously absurd.

You said earlier:

> This suggests they knew what was really going on, so it wasn't fraud in their eyes.

But now when we are talking about obvious fraud everyone agrees about and which caused investors to pull money you are pivoting to a quibble about whether the marketing was lies or not. Maybe a company which lies about its sales figures can't be trusted to be truthful about its product