Microsoft-Backed $1.5 Billion AI Startup “Builder.ai” Collapses Over Revelations of Indian Engineers Crafting AI Responses

Sure, okay. Let’s dive into this. So, AI—wow, it’s just rocketing forward faster than, well, almost anything. But there’s always that one dude—or in this case, an entire group—waving the “danger” sign about getting caught up in all the AI craze. Enter Builder.ai, which apparently got everyone talking.

So here’s the deal: AI’s swimming in cash. No kidding, right? NVIDIA, for example—holy cow—now it’s worth, like, over $3 trillion. That’s trillion with a “T.” But then you have these sneaky folks—like, how do they even do it?—who finagle money from venture capitalists by sprucing up their projects as something-something-AI.

Builder.ai is this app development thing that supposedly uses AI, but… surprise! Things aren’t what they seem. Natasha—yes, they call it Natasha—was said to be this big AI wizard for making apps. Microsoft threw $445 million into it. I mean, that’s, what, a gazillion cups of coffee? Anyway, Natasha was supposed to spit out custom apps faster than you can say “Oops, where’d all the money go?”

So the real tea? Turns out, more than 700 engineers over in India were cranking out code. Natasha was supposed to be the “AI superstar,” but it’s mostly just… people. Lots of them. ZaWarudo is not amused. With heavily-promoted smoke and mirrors, things started going sideways. And now? Well, the authorities in the US and the UK are peeling back the layers, and the company just yelled, “Bankruptcy!” and ran for the hills. Oof.

This little escapade taught us—yeah, this part is like me trying to sound wise—you can love AI, hate AI, or just get your popcorn ready, but chasing every shiny thing? Yeah, it might just leave you with a bunch of questions and nowhere to go.