Well, where do I even start? AI—it’s like the rabbit in Alice’s Wonderland, just leading us down this bizarre, twisting hole with no real end in sight. And everyone’s talking about it. Like, literally everyone. But hey, amidst all this, there’s Builder.ai. Ever heard of them? If not, don’t worry. You’re in for a ride.
So here’s the thing. AI’s this gold rush, right? And companies are throwing money at it like it’s the last ice cream on a hot summer day. Just look at NVIDIA—somehow they turned this whole AI frenzy into a $3 trillion gig. No joke. Meanwhile, there’s folks out there with a knack for spinning tales, selling their “AI this” and “AI that” to every investor willing to listen. Enter Builder.ai. Supposedly, they made app development as easy as pie—like, select some features and watch magic happen. Only it wasn’t magic. Or AI. Not even close.
I came across this tweet—don’t ask how, probably in one of those random late-night scrolling marathons—that just hit me. Picture this: the great “Natasha” AI, turns out, was just 700 Indian programmers. Yeah, I know. Wild, huh?
Builder.ai had this epic pitch: a service called Natasha that lets you whip up apps faster than you can say “I love AI.” They convinced Microsoft, of all people, to throw in $445 million. That’s some serious cash. They promised the moon—custom apps in no time, less human touch. But really, it was smoke and mirrors. They got a sweet $1.5 billion valuation. Not too shabby until, you know, the truth bomb dropped.
Behind the curtain, though, the magic was just hard-working engineers in India slogging away, making these apps happen. The supposed “AI” was mostly templates and a lot of elbow grease. Builder.ai hyped Natasha like it was the next best thing since sliced bread, but nope, real people doing real work.
Now they’re neck-deep in investigations from US and UK authorities and—wait for it—they’re going bankrupt. What a ride. Does this mean AI’s just fluff? Nah, not really. It’s just a nudge to say maybe, just maybe, sticking your head too far into the hype clouds might lead to a crash landing. Microsoft and others hopped on board, but in the end, nothing took off. AI still has potential, but hey, keep your eyes open. Not everything shiny is gold, right?
