Post #10523

The alleged secret behind Telegram's 'Tap Apps' — a human one. a startup named BuilderAI reportedly amassed nearly $500 million by having over 700 Indian workers impersonate an AI called 'Natasha.' Users were led to believe that 'Natasha' would construct custom applications by selecting templates and specifying functions. However, requests were covertly routed to an Indian office where humans manually coded the applications, passing them off as AI-generated. Despite the 'AI' producing buggy, unreadable code and non-functional features—ironically mirroring some early AI pitfalls—the company operated undetected for eight years, drawing $445 million in investments from giants like Microsoft. BuilderAI has now officially declared bankruptcy.