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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'?

#101

Post by RollingRo11 »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #22
andrewinardeer wrote: post #18

AI = Actual Indians, apparently.

Yep. Also happened with Amazon's "Just Walk Out Technology:" https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actual...

I remember being 13 years old and stepping into an Amazon Go store in Seattle. Little me lost my mind. I think I walked in and out of the store like 5 times just to see the amazon charge. Sucks that half of the magic was a lie.

Shame to see another project fall to the strategy of AI = "actually indians". I wonder how many other companies have engaged in this stuff.

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

#102

Post by snowwrestler »

MangoToupe wrote: post #91
Aurornis wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Fake it till you make it" was about presenting yourself as an established, stable company to overcome objections about using a startup. Things like having a "Customer Support" phone number and e-mail address that just go to the founders, for example. It's fair game if the founders are actually picking up the phone and doing customer support, and it overcomes one objection people might have about using a startup inst…

There's a good deal of grey-area there, for instance in faking user activity in social media startups. Reddit did this for instance, although I don't know if they reported active user numbers as part of fundraising.

Most people on web forums or social media sites are browsing, reading, watching. Only a small percentage are posting UGC, user-generated content.

So when founders are starting a new site, they need to bootstrap by getting enough content in there to drive browsing. Only then will the audience grow, and only then will users start to post their own stuff. This is what Reddit did, and it’s not unique to them. YouTube’s founders did the same thing when they started.

Note that this is not “fake it til you make it.” This is investment in audience growth.

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

#103

Post by ahazred8ta »

Supermancho wrote: post #20
klipt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all companies are equal. At the same time that Tesla was making actual electric cars, Nikola was rolling fake "electric trucks" downhill. Grifters exist, but not everyone is a grifter.

Capitalism rewards dishonesty. Every company is a grifter to some degree. This is more widespread in technical service companies.

In eastern europe (COMECON) during the cold war days, the factories were famous for cranking out products that claimed to do something but did not deliver on the promise. Did they do that because they were run by capitalists?

Google China melamine contaminated milk.

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

#104

Post by throwaway29812 »

dmazin wrote: post #43
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Also happened with Amazon's "Just Walk Out Technology:" https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actual...

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.

[dead]

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

#105

Post by blitzar »

nickdothutton wrote: post #92
blitzar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the process for hallucinations? Do 1 in 10 of each of the workers have to be tripping on shrooms all shift?

No, lack of sleep.

Elegant cost saving (or redistribution of drugs to head office) solution.

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

#106

Post by pyman »

RollingRo11 wrote: post #101
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Also happened with Amazon's "Just Walk Out Technology:" https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actual...

I remember being 13 years old and stepping into an Amazon Go store in Seattle. Little me lost my mind. I think I walked in and out of the store like 5 times just to see the amazon charge. Sucks that half of the magic was a lie. Shame to see another project fall to the strategy of AI = "actually indians". I wonder how many other companies have engaged in this stuff.

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

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

#107

Post by hyperadvanced »

Ancalagon wrote: post #3

Really weird considering how much AI is actually available now

Available sure, but cost effective? My guess is that they tried a lot of things to get ChatGPT to work and burnt out of money before it got cheap enough to fit with a reliable business model. Early but not wrong, I guess.

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

#109

Post by kylecazar »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #96
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.

That was the original idea, and that's what Amazon claimed, but IIRC they never got over 70% automated. Phrased differently, 30% of all transactions were still entered by a human overseas watching cameras at the time they decided to pull the plug, years after the initial launch.

Interesting that they can automate some of the transactions and not others... Wonder what was special about those other 30%.

There was a 2 year period in which I bought lunch at an Amazon Go daily. I was naive to the magic so I thought it was the greatest innovation ever.

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