{"id":2229549,"date":"2026-10-30T16:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2229549"},"modified":"2026-10-30T16:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:03:45","slug":"theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-warns-that-the-ai-boom-is-a-great-opportunity-to-go-deceive-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2229549","title":{"rendered":"Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz warns that the AI boom is \u2018a great opportunity to go deceive people\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-1465332173.jpg?resize=1200,800&#8243;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content wp-block-post-content is-layout-constrained wp-block-post-content-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou Can See Everything,\u201d the documentary capturing disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes\u2019 final weeks before prison, is sparking national conversation as it becomes one of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time. The film, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, intentionally refuses to characterize Holmes as a master manipulator or victim, instead highlighting her uncanny, almost hypnotic knack for making people pity her, even when they\u2019re well aware of her crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tyler Shultz didn\u2019t need to see \u201cYou Can See Everything\u201d to make up his mind about Holmes. Shultz, whose first job out of college was at Theranos, was a key whistleblower who exposed the company\u2019s dangerously inaccurate blood testing devices, which made their way into Walgreens stores and delivered faulty results to real patients. (Theranos reached a peak valuation of around $10 billion despite its technology never actually working \u2014 the company only used its own machines for a fraction of tests, instead outsourcing others to third-party equipment.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is little reason to keep talking about Holmes \u2014 her case is closed, and she\u2019s in federal prison \u2014 but her con-artistry has fascinated the media (myself included) for the last decade. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, as Shultz says in an interview with The San Francisco Standard, \u201cthe only reason we\u2019re talking about Elizabeth Holmes right now is because she wants us to be talking about Elizabeth Holmes right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"tcembed-iframe tcembed--youtube\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Theranos whistleblower on Elizabeth Holmes, AI, and tech fraud\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N-NJN3Sh3ag?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the cautionary tale of Theranos takes on a new significance as we enter the peak of the AI era, when companies that have never turned a profit are raising capital at trillion-dollar valuations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think the days of having a thirty-minute coffee with someone and sending them $100,000 should be over. Elizabeth took that model and scaled it to $100 million,\u201d Shultz told SF Standard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His grandfather, former U.S. Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz, was a notable investor and board member himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI believe that what [Holmes] did was raise the biggest angel round of funding of all time, but even at the smaller levels, I think investors need to recognize that when they put that type of money in someone\u2019s hands, they are giving them tremendous power,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Theranos\u2019 funding often came from individual investors like the DeVos and Walton families, rather than venture firms. Theranos did not share scientific information or evidence that its machines worked with potential investors, citing concerns about revealing trade secrets, which warded off many top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time Theranos\u2019 fraud was uncovered, it was seen as a shrill wake-up call for investors that they need to prioritize due diligence. But in the AI era, Shultz worries that investors may forget these lessons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA huge danger with AI is that I think it is really hard to do due diligence on it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to tell the difference between what is something truly unique and new versus like, a ChatGPT wrapper\u2026 If you want to deceive people, I think this is a great opportunity to go deceive people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first question posed by \u201cYou Can See Everything\u201d lies in the premise of the movie itself. Why would a mother of two young children choose to invite a film crew to follow her final days with her family before surrendering to serve a prison sentence of over 11 years? The film poses questions that seem inscrutable, but this one seems pretty clear. She wants people to pity her, because this pity could be more useful for her future endeavors than hate or mockery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the film, we see Holmes and her partner, hotel heir Billy Evans, working on Haemanthus, a diagnostics company that they call \u201cTheranos 2.0,\u201d which has reportedly raised about $20 million in funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou Can See Everything\u201d doesn\u2019t make Holmes look good, but it also glosses over the more heinous crimes of Theranos, like giving dangerously faulty medical information to real patients, or even its targeted harassment of Shultz himself when he was attempting to sound the alarm about his former employer. In the cultural zeitgeist, Holmes remains more of a joke than a persona non grata.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have this feeling of unease about what might come next,\u201d Shultz said. \u201cShe\u2019s certainly preparing and beginning her second act, and I don\u2019t know exactly where it\u2019s going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/10\/30\/theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-warns-that-the-ai-boom-is-a-great-opportunity-to-go-deceive-people\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-1465332173.jpg?resize=1200,800&#8243;] \u201cYou Can See Everything,\u201d the documentary capturing disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes\u2019 final weeks before prison, is sparking national conversation as it becomes one of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time. The film, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, intentionally refuses to characterize Holmes as a master manipulator or victim, instead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,62],"class_list":["post-2229549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-techcrunch-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2229549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2229549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2229549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2229549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}