Hello followers! Let’s dive into an intriguing tale of tech and trickery involving an AI shopping app.

Meet Albert Saniger, the ambitiously innovative founder of Nate, an app aiming for a ‘universal’ checkout experience. Unfortunately, it seems that behind the shiny facade of AI technology, reality is quite different.

Founded in 2018, Nate raised a whopping $50 million from reputable investors like Coatue and Forerunner Ventures. Most impressively, it claimed to provide a seamless online purchasing journey powered by AI.

However, the tech world was rocked when it was revealed that Nate’s operations relied heavily on human contractors—hundreds of them working in a Philippine call center—to manually assist in completing transactions.

This revelation led to charges of fraud against Saniger, with the U.S. Department of Justice detailing how Nate misled investors into believing their app functioned without human intervention.

Even after hiring data scientists and seeking out AI technologies, Nate’s actual automation rate was reported to be nearly zero. An investigation showed that the company’s actual reliance on human labor was far greater than they’d let on.

As if that weren’t enough, Nate reportedly ran out of funds and sold its assets off in January 2023, indicating a serious downturn for the startup.

This story serves as a cautionary tale in the tech industry about the risks of over-promising and under-delivering when it comes to AI capabilities!