Builder.ai did not "fake AI with 700 engineers"

Summary

The Pulse is a series covering insights, patterns, and trends within Big Tech and startups. Notice an interesting event or trend? Send me a message.Before we start, an important correction from last week’s The Pulse: this publication was among those to incorrectly report that defunct AI startup, Builder.ai, faked its product by hiring 700 human engineers to pretend to be an AI product called Natasha. I’ve since talked with former engineers at Builder.ai to get the real story, which is the first report in today’s edition. As far as I know, these clarifying details are being surfaced for the first time. I’ve not yet seen the incorrect detail retracted and clarified by other publications, but am happy to do so, here.Today, we cover:No, Builder.ai did NOT fake AI with 700 engineers. The claim that the AI startup “faked AI” with hundreds of engineers went viral – and I also fell for it, initially. The reality is much more sobering: Builder.ai built a code generator on top of Claude and other LLMs; it did not build a so-called “Mechanical Turk.” One reason the startup might have failed – excluding allegations of accounting fraud – was the time and effort it spent on building internal versions of Slack, Zoom, JIRA, and more, when these tools already existed.Industry pulse. A big push to repeal Section 174, Meta throws money at fixing its AI problems, Google might be preparing for job cuts, ChatGPT could be eating Google Search market share, and Arc launches “AI-browser”, Dia.Stock vesting changes at NVIDIA and Anthropic. Stock grants at NVIDIA are becoming front-loaded, while Anthropic has gone from options to double-trigger RSUs.A reminder of vibe coding’s security risks. Readers of this publication proved vibe-coded apps are a security nightmare, by bypassing the upvoting fingerprinting on a simple “vibe coded” app which I instructed an AI to make secure.An eye-catching detail widely reported by media and on social media about the bankrupt business Builder.ai last week, ...