Duggal 自称为这家从伦敦起步，成长为欧洲最大、最受关注的 AI 独角兽之一的初创公司 Builder.ai "首席魔法师"。当时，他已经面临董事会的各种质 疑、公司债务不断增加，这从 Duggal 在 Instagram 上晒出的光鲜生活（摩纳哥游艇、卡普里网球……）上完全看不出来。 去年夏天，Sachin Dev Duggal 和家人搬去了迪拜，却留下了一颗尚未引爆的炸弹。 但从去年冬天起，一切开始急转直下。Builder 董事会发现销售额被严重夸大，首席执行官因此辞职。几个月间，总部位于伦敦、业务遍及印度和美国加 州的 Builder 就从一家估值 15 亿美元的独角兽公司沦为破产企业。目前，该公司正在特拉华州的法院进行清算。 今年 3 月临危受命出任首席执行官、试图挽救公司的 Manpreet Ratia 表示，"Builder 应当成为各位投资者、员工和高管们的反面教材。在自我定位和宣传 时也务必谨慎，否则总有一天要付出代价。"据悉，Ratia 当时加入 Builder.ai 时，公司现金储备仅余 700 万美元，随后又从股东手中筹集了 7500 万美元试 图维持运营。 然而据《金融时报》的报道 ...

Core Viewpoint - Builder.ai, once a leading AI startup valued at $1.5 billion, has faced a dramatic downfall due to inflated sales figures and mounting debts, leading to its bankruptcy filing in Delaware [4][5][24]. Group 1: Company Background and Growth - Builder.ai was founded by Sachin Dev Duggal, who aimed to simplify software development for businesses without requiring programming skills [7]. - The company initially did not emphasize its AI capabilities, but after significant funding in 2018, it began to market itself as an AI-driven platform [7][8]. - The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 catalyzed investor interest, resulting in a total investment of $450 million from various investors, including Qatar Investment Authority and SoftBank [9]. Group 2: Financial Mismanagement and Decline - The company's board discovered that Builder.ai's reported revenues were significantly exaggerated, with actual revenues for FY2023 being only $42 million against reported figures of $157 million [23]. - By 2024, the discrepancy widened further, with reported revenues of $217 million but actual revenues of just $51 million [23]. - The company faced severe cash flow issues, leading to unpaid debts of $85 million to Amazon and Microsoft [5][23]. Group 3: Marketing and Operational Strategies - Builder.ai spent approximately 80% of its revenue on marketing rather than product development, with promotional expenses reaching $42 million by 2024 [11][10]. - The company aimed to make software creation as easy as ordering food, promoting its AI project management tool "Natasha" at various tech conferences [12][10]. - Despite claims of AI capabilities, internal documents revealed that much of the work was performed by human contractors rather than AI technology [25][26]. Group 4: Legal and Ethical Concerns - Allegations surfaced regarding the company maintaining two sets of financial records, one for investors and another for internal use, raising concerns about transparency [17]. - Former executives compared Builder.ai to Theranos, suggesting it operated on misleading claims about its technology [17]. - The company's practices of underpaying contractors and misrepresenting its AI capabilities led to significant backlash from former employees [26][25].

Core Viewpoint - Baidu's "MiaoDa" platform, the first conversational application development platform in China, has officially launched, aiming to democratize AI application development and make intelligent agents accessible to everyone [2]. Group 1: Platform Features - MiaoDa combines "no-code programming + multi-agent collaboration + multi-tool invocation," fundamentally changing traditional development processes [1]. - Users can generate complete functional code by simply describing their needs in natural language, achieving a development experience of "3 minutes to generate + 1 hour for iteration" [1]. - The platform includes a "smart agent collaboration matrix" with over ten vertical domain agents, allowing users to dynamically adjust strategies and behaviors based on task requirements [1]. Group 2: Integration and Support - MiaoDa integrates various third-party tools and services, enabling seamless connections with different data sources and tools, thus providing full-link support from demand to deployment [1].