Uber's key innovation was skirting labor laws. So when VCs say things like "Were looking for the Uber of AI", what they really mean is "where looking for ways a company can use AI to mistreat it's workers without being fined for it".
"But its business strategy’s execution relied heavily on two factors: 1) barreling into urban markets (often extralegally) where virtually its only competitor was the highly-regulated taxi industry, and 2) classifying its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, thus exempting them from benefits that would cost Uber more money."
Uber's key innovation was skirting labor laws. So when VCs say things like "Were looking for the Uber of AI", what they really mean is "where looking for ways a company can use AI to mistreat it's workers without being fined for it".
Yup, I wrote about this exact phenomenon here: https://networked.substack.com/p/the-platforms-have-a-cheat-code
"But its business strategy’s execution relied heavily on two factors: 1) barreling into urban markets (often extralegally) where virtually its only competitor was the highly-regulated taxi industry, and 2) classifying its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, thus exempting them from benefits that would cost Uber more money."