AI Founder Promised Amazing Chatbot to Public Schools, Then Allegedly Spent the Money on a Lavish Wedding and Mansion
“A disturbing and disappointing house of cards that deceived and victimized many across the country.” AllFake After duping the Los Angeles school system into giving her gobs of money, the founder of an AI ed tech firm allegedly spent a lot of it on herself. As the LA Times reports, 33-year-old Joanna Smith-Griffin, the founder of an AI startup called AllHere, has been charged by federal prosecutors with identity theft and multiple counts of fraud after her alleged web of lies regarding her company’s sketchy wares came tumbling down. Earlier this year, the same newspaper reported that after being contracted to build out a chatbot connecting families with information from the Los Angeles Unified School District, AllHere filed for bankruptcy despite tens of millions of dollars in public and private investment. Now, the reason why seems to be emerging, per the allegations: that the founder’s repeated lies about the company’s worth, and dips into its investments for her own personal gain, led it to ruin. Double Dipping Prosecutors maintain in their indictment against Smith-Griffin that the …