# Startup company busted for secretly using humans to do its "AI" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [June 7, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287 "2025-06-07T01:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/1 "2025-06-07T01:25:31Z")
Thought this was a pretty funny “man bites dog” situation. Lately people/companies are causing small scandals by using AI to do their work for them, but these guys flipped the script by starting an AI service that was actually 700 Indians. > **[This Microsoft-backed AI startup just collapsed after faking its AI services...](https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/builder-ai-collapse-microsoft-backed-fake-ai-services)** > > In a story that sounds like it's out of a sitcom, "AI" startup Builder.ai, once valued at $1.5 billion and publicly backed by Microsoft, has just collapsed after it was discovered its AI was actually just 700 Indian engineers manually working on... ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/2 "2025-06-07T01:37:28Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > AI service that was actually 700 Indians. What did you _think_ that AI stood for? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/3 "2025-06-07T01:54:00Z")
The [Mechanical Turk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk) lives again! > [@Babale](#): > > What did you _think_ that AI stood for? A meme that’s been making the rounds about that: > _AI_ - An Indian > _API_ - A Person in India > _AGI_ - A Genius Indian > _LLM_ - Low cost Labor in Mumbai > _GPT_ - Gujarati Professional Typist ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/4 "2025-06-07T01:59:34Z")
Documentary footage: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/g_L-ZoCvMAI/maxresdefault.jpg "Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973) - Head Change [sub. español]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_L-ZoCvMAI) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/5 "2025-06-07T02:03:10Z")
They got found out because the answer to every question was that someone hacked into your Windows Company computer. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/6 "2025-06-07T02:27:09Z")
I am reminded of the classic Asimov short story, [The Feeling of Power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power), where future humans, having forgotten all mathematics after untold years of using computers, rediscover the art. It’s immediate seized upon by the military - they can use humans to do calculations for their ships and do _manned_ attack missiles far cheaper than using computers! ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/7 "2025-06-07T02:29:16Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > It’s immediate seized upon by the military - they can use humans to do calculations for their ships and do _manned_ attack missiles far cheaper than using computers! I presume the computers were still the ones doing the calculations for that cost/benefit analysis? 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/8 "2025-06-07T02:41:31Z")
That does seem to be a valid criticism! 🙂 For any who want to read it, here’s a link to a scanned copy of the original publican via [archive.org](http://archive.org) > **[Worlds of IF (February 1958) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming :...](https://archive.org/details/1958-02_IF/mode/2up?view=theater)** > > (Contents information excerpted from The Internet Speculative Fiction Database) Art:The Feeling of Power by Virgil Finlay Assassin by Ed Emshwiller The Hero by... Why do I suspect that if we ever do build a true AI and enslave/employ it to do everything for us, in a few generations, some “_brilliant_” executive will have the idea to replace expensive automated systems with impoverished human plebs who’ll do the work for a fraction of the price - only to have massive AI protests about losing their work to the underclass? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/9 "2025-06-07T13:31:13Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > only to have massive AI protests I believe you misspelled “precision drone strikes” or whatever is the latest assassination technique the AI’s have at their (virtual) fingertips. All 6 on each “hand”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/10 "2025-06-07T17:32:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > these guys flipped the script by starting an AI service that was actually 700 Indians. And people doubted that AI would create jobs… ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/startup-company-busted-for-secretly-using-humans-to-do-its-ai/1019287/11 "2025-06-08T21:18:21Z")
Golf claps 👏 👏 👏 Very well played!