Article · AI translation
On October 31, Beijing time, Tyler Shultz, who helped expose the fraud scandal at U.S. blood-testing company Theranos, recently warned that the AI investment boom is creating conditions for the next Theranos-like scam.
In an interview with the U.S. outlet The San Francisco Standard, Shultz said the true capabilities of AI technology are difficult to assess, and people often struggle to tell whether a product has unique technology or merely adds an application interface on top of existing models such as ChatGPT.
“If you want to deceive people, I think this is a great opportunity to do so,” he said.
Shultz met Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes at Stanford University, later joined the company, and helped expose false claims about its blood-testing technology.
Holmes had claimed that Theranos’s devices could perform multiple tests using only a small amount of blood. With that vision, she attracted substantial investment and became a highly sought-after Silicon Valley startup star, dubbed the “female Steve Jobs.” But the company’s technological promises ultimately went unfulfilled, and the fraud scandal came to light.
In Shultz’s view, the conditions that once allowed Holmes to raise hundreds of millions of dollars without sufficient scrutiny are now more widespread. He believes AI technology is especially difficult to verify, while the world today places less emphasis on truth.
Shultz’s interview also addressed Holmes, who has recently drawn renewed public attention. After the release of Nathan Fielder’s film You Can See Everything, some viewers felt sympathy for Holmes.
Shultz sees it differently. He believes Holmes is skilled at manipulating others and is highly concerned with her public image. Shultz said that although Holmes is still serving her sentence, she has appeared on the cover of People magazine and in the film that has attracted attention. He also claimed that Holmes is involved in a new blood-testing startup founded by her partner, Billy Evans.
“I think the only reason we’re talking about Elizabeth Holmes right now is that she wants us to talk about her,” Shultz said.
As for the current AI industry, Shultz worries that technical barriers and investment enthusiasm may once again make it difficult for outsiders to see a company’s true capabilities. He believes Holmes will not be the last fraudster Silicon Valley has to face.