Also they had at least 10 direct contractors, and OpenLoop is a whole platform as well.

On the one hand, it's easy to blame them for not being more careful with customer data or not being more honest with their advertising or being more compliant with any/all laws. And it's easy to point the finger at AI because they used it to code the product.

On another hand, a whole lot of non-AI companies have also had embarrassing data breaches or misleading ads or some other misconduct. Uber basically just coded an app and the majority of their workforce are actually gig contractors. Theranos basically lied their ass off about their blood tests. I can't count how many companies have lost my personal information.

So I don't really think this is the AI's fault. This is a founder in "move fast and break things" mode and it's their fault for not taking the rules seriously. The AI just means they aren't abusing some young coder eager for a good payday when the company exits. The young coder would have never pushed back on the founder and warned them about the FDA and potential class action lawsuits. So the AI can't really be blamed for not doing that either- the founder has to take responsibility for the crap their company did, whether it was an AI or a human employee.

This is the second time in my life that this has happened to me.

First time was when I interviewed at this social media startup which had raised a 100 mil during the pandemic, and promptly collapsed, all numbers there were cooked.