Tools & Platforms
Former Builder.ai CEO Sachin Dev Duggal withdrawn from tech conference amid controversy
Sachin Dev Duggal, founder of the now-defunct artificial intelligence start-up Builder.ai, has been pulled from the speakers line-up at a technology conference in Paris.
Former employees emailed the organisers of the Raise Summit − which ended on Wednesday − with complaints over the nature of the company’s demise.
In May, Mr Duggal’s former company, which had offices in London, New York and Dubai, began insolvency proceedings.
An email provided to The National composed by Raise organisers said Mr Duggal had been invited to speak to hopefully provide an insight into how the company’s fortunes turned.
But they said they received “numerous emails”, including from employees who lost their jobs, Raise said.
“However, given the security concerns and the fact that we did not have full clarity on the story, we ultimately decided not to move forward featuring him at the event.”
This is the latest in a series of incidents that have marked the fall of a company that once achieved unicorn status − receiving a valuation of more than $1 billion − and a significant investment from US technology giant Microsoft.
Some workers at the company have told The National that on legal advice, they had been told to preserve documents and other evidence that may relate to a possible criminal investigation.
Some also said they had been issued subpoenas from the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan.
In 2024, Mr Duggal briefly spoke to The National as he appeared at an event hosted by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, which had just announced a new AI centre.
“With this centre, we’re helping to unveil a portal to global commerce,” Mr Duggal said then, reflecting on why Builder.ai chose DMCC as an ecosystem partner.
“We didn’t want to be a software company just surrounded by other software companies, we wanted to be surrounded by potential customers and peers.”
Yet ultimately, Builder.ai failed to meet revenue expectations.
The company had promised to make mobile app development as “easy as buying a pizza” through the use of heavily promoted AI technology, but it struggled to create reliable products, disappointing investors such as Microsoft and sovereign wealth funds in Qatar.
To try to stabilise the situation, Mr Duggal requested more investment funds, and an emergency loan, months before he was stripped of the chief executive title.
There have been allegations of financial irregularities, while the legitimacy of the company’s AI technology has also been questioned in recent months by several news outlets.
In May, Mr Duggal posted a message on LinkedIn within a Builder.ai alumni group created on the platform.
“I don’t think the story is done yet, but irrespective, if I can be of any help to any of you as you make this transition in life please know I’m only a message away,” he posted in part. “And more importantly – if I didn’t listen, if I was short, if I was unreasonable – I’m sorry.”
On Builder.ai’s main LinkedIn page, comments from unhappy former customers are plentiful.
“What are you doing to get all of your customers their code for completed apps they paid for?” one person wrote.
“Don’t believe these fancy conferences, flying around, inviting celebrities … It’s all hype and nonsense,” wrote another, referring to the various events where Mr Duggal often dispensed start-up wisdom.
A WhatsApp group created by former Builder.ai employees is full of criticisms as well, with some making allegations about not being paid for work done.
Mr Duggal has not responded to requests for comment.
As millions of young people worldwide increasingly rely on AI chatbots to acquire knowledge as part of their learning — and even complete assignments for them — one organization is concerned that those in developing countries without access to the tech could be put at an unfair disadvantage.
And it’s using the very technology it believes is causing this problem to fix it.
Education Above All, a nonprofit based in Qatar, believes that because most of the world’s popular AI chatbots are created in Silicon Valley, they aren’t equipped to understand the linguistic and ethnic nuances of non-English-speaking countries, creating education inequities on a global scale. But its team sees AI as a way to tackle this problem.
In January 2025, the charity teamed up with MIT, Harvard, and the United Nations Development Programme to introduce a free and open-source AI literacy program called Digi-Wise. Delivered in partnership with educators in the developing world, it encourages children to spot AI-fueled misinformation, use AI tools responsibly in the classroom, and even develop their own AI tools from scratch.
As part of this, the charity has developed its own generative AI chatbot called Ferby. It allows users to access and personalize educational resources from the Internet-Free Education Resource Bank, an online library containing hundreds of free and open-source learning materials.
Education Above All said it’s already being used by over 5 million Indian children to access “project-based learning” in partnership with Indian nonprofit Mantra4Change. More recently, Education Above All has embedded Ferby into edtech platform SwiftChat, which is used by 124 million students and teachers across India.
“Ferby curates, customizes, and creates learning materials to fit local realities, so a teacher in rural Malawi can run the right science experiment as easily as a teacher in downtown Doha,” said Aishwarya Shetty, an education specialist at Education Above All. “By marrying offline ingenuity with AI convenience, we make learning local, low-resource, and always within reach, yet at scale.”
Education Above All is among a group of organizations using AI to tackle global inequality and work toward realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Created in 2015, the UN SDGs comprise 17 social, economic, and environmental targets that serve as guidelines for nations, businesses, and individuals to follow to help achieve a more peaceful and prosperous world. Education Above All’s projects fall under SDG 4: inclusive and equitable education.
A global effort
A range of other organizations are using AI to augment and enhance their education programming.
Tech To The Rescue, a global nonprofit that connects charities with pro-bono software development teams to meet their goals, is another organization using AI in support of the UN SDGs. Last year, it launched a three-year AI-for-good accelerator program to help NGOs meet the various UN SDGs using AI.
One organization to benefit from the program is Mercy Corps, a humanitarian group that works across over 40 countries to tackle crises like poverty, the climate crisis, natural disasters, and violence. Through the accelerator, it created an AI strategy tool that helps first responders predict disasters and coordinate resources. The World Institute on Disability AI also participated in the accelerator program, creating a resource-matching system that helps organizations allocate support to people with disabilities in hours rather than weeks.
Similarly, the International Telecommunication Union — the United Nations’ digital technology agency, and one of its oldest arms — is supporting organizations using technology to achieve the UN SDGs through its AI for Good Innovation Factory startup competition. For example, an Indian applicant — a startup called Bioniks — has enabled a teenager to reclaim the ability to do simple tasks like writing and getting dressed through the use of AI-powered prosthetics.
Challenges to consider
While AI may prove to be a powerful tool for achieving the UN SDGs, it comes with notable risks. Again, as AI models are largely developed by American tech giants in an industry already constrained by gender and racial inequality, unconscious bias is a major flaw of AI systems.
To address this, Shetty said layered prompts for non-English users, human review of underlying AI datasets, and the creation of indigenous chatbots are paramount to achieving Education Above All’s goals.
AI models are also power-intensive, making them largely inaccessible to the populations of developing countries. That’s why Shetty urges AI companies to provide their solutions via less tech-heavy methods, like SMS, and to offer offline features so users can still access AI resources when their internet connections drop. Open-source, free-of-charge subscriptions can help, too, she added.
AI as a source for good
Challenges aside, Shetty is confident that AI can be a force for good over the next few years, particularly around education. She told BI, “We are truly energized by how the global education community is leveraging AI in education: WhatsApp-based math tutors reaching off-grid learners; algorithms that optimize teacher deployment in shortage areas; personalized content engines that democratize education; chatbots that offer psychosocial support in crisis zones and more.”
But Shetty is clear that AI should augment, rather than displace, human educators. And she said the technology should only be used if it can solve challenges faced by humans and add genuine value.
“Simply put,” she said, “let machines handle the scale, let humans handle the soul, with or without AI tools.”
Google on Thursday announced the second cohort to take part in its AI Academy American Infrastructure Academy, which seeks to support companies using AI to address issues such as cybersecurity, education, and transportation.
The four-month program is designed for companies at a seed to Series A stage and provides equity-free support and resources like leadership coaching and sales training. It’s primarily virtual, but founders will convene for an in-person summit eventually at Google. Applications opened in late April of this year and closed mid-May; companies selected had to pass a competitive criteria, including having at least six months of runway and having proof of traction.
Google has a pretty good track record so far of identifying notable AI startups. Alumni from Google’s American Infrastructure first cohort last year include the government contractor company Cloverleaf AI, which went on to raise a $2.8 million seed round, and Zordi, an autonomous agtech that had already raised $20 million from Khlosa Ventures.
And it partners with some of the most significant AI companies that use its cloud.
Here were the companies selected for this latest batch:
- Attuned Intelligence — AI-powered voice agents for call centers.
- Block Harbor — cybersecurity for vehicle systems.
- CircNova — uses AI to analyze RNA for therapeutics.
- CloudRig — provides AI technology to help contractors manage schedules, production, and work plans.
- Making Space — connects employers with disabled talent and prospective employees.
- MedHaul — connects healthcare organizations, like hospitals and clinics, to non-emergency medical transportation to book rides for patients with mobility needs.
- Mpathic — automates clinical workflows and provides AI oversight to clinical trials.
- Nimblemind.ai — helps organize health data.
- Omnia Fishing — offers personalized fishing suggestions, such as where to fish and what to bring along with you.
- Otrafy — automates the process of supply management.
- Partsimony — helps companies build and manage supply chains.
- Satlyt — a computing platform to process satellite data.
- StudyFetch — offers personalized learning experiences for students, educators, and institutions.
- Tansy AI — lets users manage their health, such as tracking appointments and records.
- Tradeverifyd — helps businesses track global supply chain risk.
- Vetr Health — offers at-home veterinary care.
- Waterplan — lets businesses track water risk.
This is just one of a number of programs where Google invests in AI startups and research. TechCrunch reported a few months ago that it launched its inaugural AI Futures Fund initiative to back startups building with the latest AI tools from DeepMind.
Last year, Google’s charitable wing announced a $20 million commitment to researchers and scientists in AI and an AI accelerator program to give $20 million to nonprofits developing AI technology. Sundar Pichai also said the company would create a $120 million Global AI Opportunity Fund to help make AI education more accessible to people throughout the world.
Aside from this, Google has a few notable other Academies seeking to help founders, including its Founders Academy and Growth Academy. A Google spokesperson told us earlier this year that its Google for Startups Founders Fund would also look to start backing AI-focused startups as of this year.
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