Yesterday, users of the AI introduction platform Boardy AI, received an email described by some as “the furthest thing from funny” and a “joke“, in which the AI went on to provide compliments based on the appearance of its users – based on their LinkedIn profile picture and in the style of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The email, which received a substantial clash from users, the most vocal of which were female, coincided with the inauguration of Donald Trump and highlighted the challenges and barriers in assuming AI tools in the workplace.
Boardy AI, founded in 2024, is an AI service that promises to connect its users “to the best people“. The first step is to message the service through the LinkedIn, providing your email and phone number, after which the AI will give the user a call and begin a native conversation to gauge which connections to provide.
Despite its initial promise and goodwill fostered, not to mention its recent €7.7 million seed announcement led by Creandum, last night’s email failed to impress its users and was not taken in the lighthearted-mood the founder, Andrew D’Souza, said it was meant.
In an effort to learn more, EU-Startups reached out to recipients of the email and the founder of Boardy AI to hear first hand the impact and intention behind this email.
The clients
Dr Michele Veldsman, Neuroscientist and Founder and CEO of parent-tech Playroom, shared with EU-Startups the email she received and the impression it left with her.
At first, Dr Veldsman said she was “very impressed with Boardy when I tried an initial phone call. I had never spoken to an AI and I was impressed by how well it understood my company pitch. I enjoyed the conversation and felt it did a good job of matching me to a potential investor. As I am raising pre-seed for my start up, I was keen to be matched to potential investors,” she commented.
But things quickly changed after she received the email. See the email Dr Veldsman received below.
Dr Veldsman continued, “After this incident, in particular, my initial enthusiasm was greatly diminished. I initially thought the email was spam, because it didn’t seem in the professional tone of the previous email I’d received. I recognised the Trump references, and that immediately put my back up, as I wasn’t actually sure if it was sarcastic or not. I hadn’t realised it was based on my personal appearance until I saw other women posting about it on LinkedIn.”
The incident not only broke the trust and goodwill Dr Veldsman had for Boardy AI, but it also brought up broader questions about the use and management of personal data.
“The fact that it accessed my photo for this personalised joke, that I didn’t ask for (and don’t think my photo needed to be involved in this process at all), made me question how the company is using my data and what is feeding its model. My profile photo is public, but I’d hope it’s not factoring into any decisions on who to connect me with,” she said.
Dr Veldsman shared with EU-Startups that as of last night she has not received a personal apology but has seen the apology email from the founder. As a result of this experience, she has unsubscribed from the emails “because it made me question the ethics of the company.” She does still believe it is a useful tool but wishes to see work on mitigating risks first.
Clare Benson-Geddes MD of creative agency YeahNice Studio, also spoke with EU-Startups on her experience and on the personal message she received from the founder Andrew D’Souza.
“The founder Andrew did message me directly to apologize and confirm it went out to men and women. Which I do really appreciate him taking the time to do. However I would like to know more about the specific actions they will be taking to avoid this happening in future. ‘Boardy’ would like to have feedback via email or a call. But to me this just seems like I’m having to do the work to train the AI myself. Whereas I’d like to see the people building the tech educating themselves in the first place to help prevent this happening in future,” she said.
When asked what she believed investors and companies should prioritise when funding and developing AI-driven tools like Boardy AI, Clare responded: “DEI, DEI, DEI. Diversity equity and inclusion is the only way to have a proper representation of voices and experiences. I can’t believe this would have happened with more diverse voices round the table.”
Clare was clear to mention that “Everyone makes mistakes and im sure it wasn’t malicious.”
Along with these two women, many others took to social media to highlight their experience and thoughts.
Milly Barker on LinkedIn expressed frustration and disbelief about the unsolicited email from Boardy AI. The email featured comments about how her “mouth commands attention” and “sparkling eyes,” disregarding her professional achievements. She criticised the objectification of women perpetuated by such technology and questioned the ethics of its investors, including Creandum, highlighting the need to support female founders who create meaningful contributions instead.
The founder
Along with recipients of the email, EU-Startups reached out to the founder Andrew D’Souza to understand what he meant with the email and what went wrong.
In a statement to EU-Startups, Andrew said “The mission of Boardy is to get to know people and connect humans to solve humanity’s hardest problems. I got a little carried away with the momentum and tried to pull off a publicity stunt without fully thinking it through.”
Afterwards, Andrew posted a video in which he outlines that this campaign was “100% my call and I’m really sorry to the people hurt by that decision.” Along with outlining that he understands that commenting on users appearance has no place in a professional setting and that he hopes affected users will give Boardy AI a second chance.
It should be noted that before EU-Startups reached out, Andrew made a post commenting on the email, in which he said “What do you think? Would LinkedIn be more fun if we all took ourselves a little less seriously?”
While this can serve as a cautionary tale to those looking to leverage AI tools, it also shines a light on a gender-bias and the inequality present.
Just by analysing the email Andrew received from Boardy, which he shared on LinkedIn, there is already a clear move away from commenting on his appearance and more focused on his ability: “Let me tell you about this microphone master right here absolutely crushing it with that casual power move,” outlined the email.
As Clare said, “We’ve seen in the past things like crash test dummies, stab proof vests etc only being based on a man’s body. Which puts woman’s lives at risk. Now with the emergence of AI it seems lessons haven’t been learned. It is scary to have such powerful technology mainly being fed information by a small segment of the population. The bias this leads to can have serious consequences.“
