UK-based 'AI' company Kaedim has been discovered to be using humans to convert clients' 2D illustrations into 3D models when it said it was using machine learning, resulting in accusations of poor governance and misleading marketing.

Kaedim, which claimed its technology would 'Magically generate[s] custom 3D models in minutes', regularly used cheap human labour to do much of the work, and sometimes did so without the help of any machine learning, according to 404 Media.

LinkedIn profiles revealed that Kaedim hired people from Argentina, Colombia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Spain, and other countries in 'quality control' roles for as little as USD US1 to USD US4 per model produced. 404 sources said some of these people were actually producing 3D models from scratch. 

A 2022 job listing showed Kaedim looking for applicants to produce 'low-quality' 3D images 15 minutes after they were requested by a client. Kaedim CEO Konstantina Psoma later defended negative feedback to the postings by arguing these workers helped train the company's algorithm.

Following 404's story, Kaedim updated its website to say 'Kaedim’s machine learning and in-house art team combine to deliver production-quality assets in minutes.'