Why an AI startup by Indian founders has sparked global outrage after Y Combinator demo
Optifye.ai, co-founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta, uses computer vision technology to track workers on assembly lines
Startup accelerator Y Combinator has removed a video demo from its social media channels after it sparked massive backlash for promoting what critics called "dystopian" workplace surveillance. The video, posted by Optifye.ai, showcased an AI-powered system designed to monitor factory workers’ efficiency in real-time.
Optifye.ai, co-founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta, uses computer vision technology to track workers on assembly lines and provide factory managers with productivity data. The controversial demo featured the founders role-playing as factory supervisors using their software.
In the video, Baid identifies an underperforming worker, referred to only as “Number 17,” and reprimands him for inefficiency. “You haven’t hit your hourly output even once today,” Baid states in the clip. The supervisor then checks the worker’s past performance and remarks, “Rough day? More like a rough month.”
The backlash
The demo was met with immediate criticism on social media, with users accusing the startup of dehumanizing workers and promoting exploitative labour practices.
Christopher Amidon, founder of Subsea Robotics, took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his outrage, writing, “Leave it to a bunch of children who’ve never worked a real job for a single day in their lives—and still haven’t graduated college—to come up with some obnoxious slave-driving dystopian s**t like this.”
Another user condemned it as “sweatshops-as-a-service.” Some called it akin to “promoting slavery."
HT.com has reached out to Optifye for a statement and will update this copy on receiving a response.
Despite the backlash, some defended the concept, highlighting that such surveillance technology is already in use. Vedant Nair, a founder who previously participated in Y Combinator, noted that while the demo was in “bad taste,” similar tools are actively being implemented in factories worldwide.
Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe also weighed in, pointing out that critics should reconsider their stance if they continue to purchase goods manufactured in India and China, where worker-monitoring systems are already common.
Optifye.ai’s Indian-origin founders
The product at the centre of this controversy was co-founded by Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta.
Optifye.ai’s founders, both of whom studied at Duke University, claim their exposure to manufacturing environments influenced their decision to develop the software.
“My family has been running a manufacturing company since before I was born,” Baid wrote on the company’s Y Combinator profile, adding: “ I've been around assembly lines for as long as I can remember.”
Mohta shared a similar background, stating that his unrestricted access to factory floors since age 15 helped shape the idea for Optifye. “ My family also runs several manufacturing plants in various industries, which has given me unrestricted access to assembly lines since I was 15.”
