--- title: AI is easy to fake, Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz... description: Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz says AI is easy to fake and investors must do real due diligence. He told the San Francisco Standard's PST podcast it's... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-easy-to-fake-theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-tells-sf-standard-m9i2koifo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AI is easy to fake, Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz tells SF Standard | daily.dev og:description: Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz says AI is easy to fake and investors must do real due diligence. He told the San Francisco Standard's PST podcast it's... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-easy-to-fake-theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-tells-sf-standard-m9i2koifo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/m9I2kOifO.png og:image:alt: AI is easy to fake, Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz tells SF Standard og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AI is easy to fake, Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz tells SF Standard **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz says AI is easy to fake and investors must do real due diligence. He told the San Francisco Standard's PST podcast it's hard to tell a genuinely new capability from 'a ChatGPT wrapper'. Shultz said 'the days of having a 30-minute coffee with someone and sending them $100,000 should be over', noting Theranos investors enabled Holmes by skipping scrutiny on her $100m round. He also called many AI lab NDAs and non-disparagement agreements 'likely illegal', recalling that he signed several frightening NDAs at Theranos and used a fake name to contact regulators. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What did the Theranos whistleblower say about evaluating AI startup claims? Tyler Shultz, who helped expose Theranos fraud, said it is hard to distinguish a truly unique AI capability from 'a ChatGPT wrapper', making AI startups easy to fake. He argued investors must do real due diligence rather than writing large checks after a brief meeting, pointing to how lax scrutiny let Theranos raise what he called the biggest angel round of all time. _Evaluating AI startup claims before investing or partnering is easier with context developers track on daily.dev._ ### Are NDAs at AI labs legal? Tyler Shultz, the Theranos whistleblower, said many NDAs and non-disparagement agreements signed by AI lab employees are 'incredibly overbearing' and 'likely illegal'. He drew on his own experience at Theranos, where he believed such agreements barred him from speaking to a lawyer or regulator and resorted to using a fake name and email to contact regulators. _Developers weighing AI employer NDAs can follow whistleblower and AI labor disputes on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz warns that the AI boom is ‘a great opportunity to go deceive people’](https://daily.dev/posts/theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-warns-that-the-ai-boom-is-a-great-opportunity-to-go-deceive-peo-1a1wqxalo) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Schneier on Security](https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-jvama7x9c) · Schneier on Security · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Download: AI doomers, whistleblowing agents, and de-aged livers](https://daily.dev/posts/the-download-ai-doomers-whistleblowing-agents-and-de-aged-livers-ylib9gami) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#ai-regulation](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-regulation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-easy-to-fake-theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-tells-sf-standard-m9i2koifo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"AI is easy to fake, Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz tells SF Standard","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-easy-to-fake-theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-tells-sf-standard-m9i2koifo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-easy-to-fake-theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-tells-sf-standard-m9i2koifo"},"datePublished":"2026-10-31T21:45:38.859Z","dateModified":"2026-10-31T21:46:04.038Z","description":"Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz says AI is easy to fake and investors must do real due diligence. 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