An executive director (CEO) of 35 years and founder of an online purchase request was accused of fraud by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) after making false statements that the purchase application was promoted by artificial intelligence agents (AI).
But in reality, the agents were not AI but workers of the Filipinas call center.
The scheme
Already in 2018, Albert Saniger presented its purchasing application to ia, “Nate”.
He promised a “universal” payment experience and said that the application could carry out online transactions without human intervention. This meant that Nate users could buy any electronic commerce site.
Due to this, the startup raised more than $ 50 million in investors such as Coatue and Forerunner Ventures, with the most recent financing as a $ 38 million series A in 2021 directed by Renegade Partners.
The revelations
However, in 2022, the publication centered on technology and business published an exhibition claiming that Nate was largely trusted in human contractors.
The DOJ investigated the stage, which discovered that Nate had acquired AI tools and hired data scientists.
But research too revealed that there was no real automation in the so -called AI purchase application, and the automation rate was “indeed 0%”. Instead, Saniger hired the agents of the Filipinas call center to manually complete purchases in Nate.
In addition, doj wrote That Nate declared bankruptcy in January 2023, and the CEO was forced to sell its assets, which led investors to suffer “almost total losses.” Saniger also resigned as CEO of Nate that year, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Saner’s case focuses on defrauding investors and possible investors by making false and deceptive statements about the use of Nate of the patented technology and their operational capacities.
“As alleged, Albert Saniger cheated investors when exploiting the promise and attractiveness of AI technology to build a false narrative about innovation that never existed. This type of deception not only victimizes innocent investors, but also diverts the capital of new legitimate companies. Inverters promoting false innovation.”
Matthew Podolsky, lawyer as a lawyer
If you are guilty, Saniger faces a position of fraud of values, which entails a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a position of electronic fraud, which also has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Ai in startups
This is not the first time that a startup claims to use AI technology completely, but could not do it.
In 2023, publication centered on technology The edge He informed that Presto Automation, a car entrance company that claims to be “one of the largest suppliers of labor automation technology in the industry” was notified by the United States Stock Exchange and Securities Commission.
According to a company presentation, Presto Automation hired human workers outside the site to complete more than 70% of orders, tasks that were supposed to be managed by AI agents.
Also similar to Nate, human workers for Presto automation were based on the Philippines.
As reported by Verge, a pattern is emerging in which new companies claim to use AI solutions, but instead trust contractors in countries with lower job costs.
This article is published in Bitpins: The USA of the USA
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