I might get sued for this, but imagine

you made a YouTube video about a phone.

You get it out the box, you test it, but

you feel like something's off. So, you

tell your viewers, but then you receive

a court order. You're legally forced to

take your video down. You're banned from

ever saying anything negative about that

phone again, and so is everyone else.

And suddenly, it all erupts into what

can only be described as a war within

the tech community. That would be crazy,

right? Right. This is one of the most

fascinating, alarming situations that

I've ever seen on my 15 years making

YouTube videos. And it's also currently

a very real active legal case. So, the

YouTubers involved are not allowed to

comment. But I will. I've got the

products. I've got the receipts. I've

consulted the experts and people at the

very heart of the situation. And if

anyone wants to sue me, I'd love to see

them try.

Quick context. India is the second

biggest smartphone market on earth with

over 700 million users. But at least

twothirds of the phones sold there from

brands like Xiaomi and Vivo and Oppo are

Chinese, which has created this massive

opportunity for someone to come in and

make a phone in India. Partly for the

same reason that Brits love their made

in Britain logo and Americans like to

buy American. It would help Indians to

support the economy of the country they

live in, but also compounded by the fact

that India and China don't have the best

relationship. Long story short, lots of

border clashes and a lack of trust. So

over the years, a bunch of companies

have tried. You've had Carbon, you've

had Microax, you've had Lava, all

leaning into this national pride,

plastering their marketing campaigns

with this promise of made in India. But

they've all failed to capture any kind

of meaningful market share. Because

ultimately, while their products might

be assembled in India, they're still

designed in China. And if you're going

to buy a designed in China phone, then

you might as well just buy it direct

from a Chinese company like Xiaomi and

get it even cheaper.

Which sets the stage for July 2025 when

a new brand called AI Plus launches with

the pitch of delivering India's first

fully sovereign smartphone.

>> Expertly engineered and meticulously

built in India. And they went one step

further than the rest to say that it

even

>> prioritizes your privacy and secures

stores your data in India.

>> So any of your data that has to go

online they're saying will be securely

stored

>> in Google Cloud India regions.

>> This built-in India strategy is

absolutely central to the entire case.

So, it's important to stress just how

much they leaned into it. Like how it

literally spells out on the boot screen

of my AI plus phone here, "Your data

stays safe in India." Or how they said

their phones are so secure that they

are, and I quote, "certified for

government, all amplified by the CEO

firing shots at other companies for not

holding themselves to the same

standards." Referring to other Indian

brands, he said, "Made in India means

little if software and updates come from

abroad." and then referring to the

abundance of Chinese phones. This

foreign dominance raises critical

concerns about data privacy. And if AI

Plus hadn't already made their stance

extremely clear, then nothing summarizes

it better than what I can only describe

as their comic book strip of an advert.

It starts with this poor Indian man

who's woken up to find that someone's

taken a large loan in his name without

his consent.

>> Oh, right. Yeah, it's this Chinese guy.

Chinese not safe

>> AI plus smartphone.

>> I think I've read fortune cookies with

more nuance, but you get the point.

So, you might be wondering who is this

AI plus CEO? This Indian hero who's

about to show the Chinese who's boss.

Mav Sheth, a man with a very colored

history of making phones. He was a sales

director for OPPO in India. He then

co-founded and became CEO of Realme. He

ran that company for 5 years and by the

time he left in 2023. It was the fourth

biggest smartphone brand in the country.

Then he went off to lead Honor in India

hopped over to Alcatel to do the same

until finally deciding to build his own

phones with AI Plus. So two things jump

out to me. One that with work experience

like that, I can't think of a single

person more qualified to start their own

tech company. Then second is for someone

who's seemingly so vehemently against

China, he sure has spent a lot of his

career working for Chinese companies.

>> Chinese not safe.

>> Now to be fair, got to hand the mouth of

guys flowers. The prices of the products

that he's launched, they seem really

reasonable. Amongst other products,

there were two phones. The Pulse, their

4G phone, starting at 4,499 rupees, and

then the Nova, their 5G phone, starting

at $7499. Right now, that's equivalent

to $47 and $79.

So, like, how wrong can this go?

Well, the first crack appeared when

YouTuber Gan Therapy got his hands on

the phone and posted a video. He

highlighted that this supposedly brand

new built-in India software, which the

brand calls Next Quantum OS, does seem

to look awfully similar to Realme's

operating system, which is definitely

not built in India. doesn't prove

anything. But it does make me wonder, if

you were actually building a new Android

skin from scratch for this brand new

company you started, why would you not

make it look different to what's out

there? Especially when what's out there

is the company that you used to run and

are now competing against? And then Gon

Therapy found three apps on the phone.

Clean Assistant, Phone Clone, and Mobile

Butler. Which, by the way, I also have

on my phone. Clean Assistant, Phone

Clone, and My Mobile Butler is called

Phone Manager, presumably because it's

been updated since. These apps came

pre-installed. You can't disable them or

uninstall them. And he asks, "How could

they keep your data in India if they are

actually Chinese apps?" Why would he say

that? Well, because when you pop into

the privacy policy of Phone Clone, who

else but a China based company, Sprocom

Technologies, who's very clearly spelled

out as the service provider. I screen

grabbed the entire policy and made it

public in case you fancy a very long

read. But the point is, you don't have

to scroll very far for it to raise some

eyebrows. We may collect your personal

information by one, information you

provide directly to us, two, information

we obtain automatically during your use

of this application, and three,

information we obtain from other

sources. And then for the other two

apps, there isn't a privacy policy, but

we managed to extract the app files,

ping them off to a very smart Android

researcher who's chosen to remain

anonymous. And this is what he said. All

these three apps are built in China for

sure. They just change the package name

to make it look like they are built from

scratch as part of next quantum OS

followed by all the screenshots proving

this fact. Now, does this mean that your

data is going to be sold to the highest

bidder and the Chinese triads are about

to knock on your door and ransom you to

get it back? Probably not. Most apps

collect data. But the point is, can this

app guarantee that not a shred of your

data leaves India, which is what's being

promised in no uncertain terms here.

Well, that feels less certain. Now, I'm

going to be confronting MV himself about

these apps. But for now, what you need

to know is that for saying what he said,

Yan Therapy received a legal notice from

the AI Plus company and his video has

been geollocked, meaning that I can

still watch it here in the UK. But if we

VPN over to India, you can see that you

straight up can't there bear. This is

already pretty unheard of for a tech

review. But this isn't the shocking

part.

I was curious about this whole Sprocon

thing. I never heard of the company, but

I also couldn't help but feel like they

were part of the bigger picture here.

So, I had a browse and I don't think

I've ever seen a load of nonsense quite

like it. There's pages and pages of

stuff like connect with mind. Connect

with mind. Again, I've never read a more

generic sounding company profile. And

their company culture connect with mind.

Well, of course. And then their

corporate mission is supposedly

connected intelligent

intelligental.

So, what on earth could this China based

company that can't even spell

intelligence have to do with our made in

India smartphone that literally has

intelligence in its name? I was about to

quit, but then I stumbled into this

page. Oh, Sprocom do make phones. And

while this is not exactly this, it's

pretty hard to ignore the similarities.

How aligned the camera module and the

camera positioning is. How from the side

and the bottom, these two feel like a

mirror image. Not to mention how almost

every spec, including the display, looks

identical. So, here's what you need to

understand. There are two ways to get a

tech product made. You can either

ideulate it, design it, and own all the

rights to it yourself, like Apple, for

example, who then just hands over the

brief to a contract manufacturer to do

the building for them, to Apple's exact

spec. But the other option is to go to

an ODM or original design manufacturer.

This is a company who builds the

products, but has also done the

designing, the ideation, and often owns

the rights to their designs, too. And

so, all you do as a customer is request

slight variations, get your logo added

to it, and brand it as your own. And so

Sprocom, according to an official

business report, is a Chinese ODM, which

you know is not in itself unusual, but

it does cast even more doubt on just how

much of the imagining and building that

AI Plus is actually doing themselves. To

give you an idea, within just half an

hour of digging, I managed to find four

other supposed clients of this Sprocom

company, and all of their phones look

remarkably similar to ones on Sprocom's

site. So, when you look at this, how

much does it look like Sprocom's clients

are really researching and developing

themselves? And how much does it look

like they're largely just taking what

Sprocom gave them?

And um I've come to learn something else

about Sprocom through a conversation

with someone who's let's just say very

high up and very involved in the Indian

supply chain.

>> Basically, you have different tiers of

ODMs. So up there you have ODMs in the

likes of Long Chair. They work with

brands like OPPO, Vivo, Samsung. Then

you also have good ODMs. They work with

brands like nothing or Moto.

>> Yeah.

>> And then you have low tier ODMs. And

those ODMs are known for making very

very cheap products. This includes ODMs

like Procom.

>> There is no R&D involved. The product

exists. What you do is just you

customize slightly the back of the phone

so that it looks a bit different. They

cut a lot of corners. The way they make

things very costefficient is having a

very cheap supply chain. They use a lot

of like secondhand components. The

biggest opportunity is when it comes to

the memory chips. For reference, for 64

GB memory, you'll probably get around as

low as $20 versus $60 if you are buying

it new.

>> So people are buying a new product, but

actually the memory chips inside are

from used products.

>> Exactly.

>> Given that in India specifically, there

are tons of phones in that lower price

bracket. Would you say that's probably

the case with most of them?

>> No, that's the thing. If you look this

year, whether it's like OPPO, Vivo, they

haven't been launching any phones in

that price point. Those players are the

ones kind of working with the tier one

ODMs I mentioned because they don't do

this type of like more dirty work.

>> So, my takeaway from this is there's

actually two layers of dubiousness. On

top of AI+'s already debatable claims

about how Indian their products are,

according to this insider, by buying a

phone sourced from Sprocom, you're also,

ironically, getting a lower quality

product than the Chinese companies that

AI Plus is trying so hard to separate

themselves from.

But if everything we've seen so far has

felt sus, then AI Plus's wave 2 is where

this situation just explodes. Because

now we move into this year, 2026, where

AI Plus launches their second set of

products. One of them being the Pulse 2.

That's actually the one I'm holding

here. And this time, clearly the

YouTubers are ready because one of them,

Techweiser, drops a video titled, "This

Indian phone is a marketing disaster."

Now, this video got taken down

completely. It's part of the evidence

being used in the court case. I'm

getting to that, but he accused the

company of a few things. One of them

being how it's just a bit strange that

the CEO has gone on the record to brag

about the lack of bloatware. First and

foremost, no bloat wares.

>> The bloatware still exists. It existed

on his phone. It exists on my phone.

It's hidden from the app drawer, so you

can only tell when you open up this game

space hub. But this absolutely counts as

bloatware by my definition. It's

preloaded. The games are spammy and

adfilled. Many people will not want

them, and yet they are still taking up

storage space. Again, Mardev has his own

defense for this, but we're getting to

him. More concerningly than bloatware

though, Techwise's other claim is that

you know the Chinese apps that were

present on the first AI Plus phones that

caused the entire scandal. Well, he said

that all of those apps were actually

still on the new phone. Two of them had

now been hidden, but just by plugging

into a laptop and entering a quick

command, he could reveal them again. And

then he finished off this video by

recapping all the companies that

Mardiff's worked at, explaining that

each one has deserted customers in some

way and concludes that the biggest

reason to not trust this phone or trust

this entire company is the founder Mard

of Sheth. 5 days after that, a second

bombshell drops. This time from another

channel, Techbar. And he goes even

harder because as well as the AI Plus

Pulse 2, one of the other new products

launched was the Nova Flip. And Techbar

says that this phone is exactly the same

phone as the Chinese ZTE Nubia Flip 2.

He says they have the same battery

processor, that the camera seems the

same as a ZTE, and I can see why he'd

say that. He didn't actually have the

phone in hand when shooting his video,

but I do. And in fact, I can tell you

this is a ZTE phone. I can see all sorts

of apps and sensors with clearly labeled

ZTE identifiers. And here's the thing.

If anyone were to argue that maybe the

links to China are fairly minor surface

level on the pulse phones, I don't think

that can be argued for the flip. The

compass app ZTE, the AI engine ZTE, the

fingerprint service ZTE, and we should

probably at this point just register the

20 to 30 and sometimes more permissions

given to these services.

Anyway,

Techbar then goes on to say, "If you

think it took me a lot of effort to find

this flip phone example, it's not like

that." He says, "Look into any of their

products and you'll find a Chinese

copy." And credit where credit's due, I

too found one in about 3 minutes of

soouththing. Their website has a

download section here. So, that takes

you to, I guess, the support page. Need

help setting up your device? Well, screw

you because that button doesn't work.

Good start. In fact, the one link on

this page that actually does work is a

link to the app for the kids watch that

they sell. You click download Lee Fine

Technology. Lee Fine Technology

doesn't sound Indian. So, let's search

that up. Oh, would you look at that?

Based in Shenzen. And it's not just a

software thing. Yet again, the hardware

on the Leifine website looks identical

to the hardware that AI Plus is selling.

So, very likely another ODM to add to

the list. But then the most curious

example that tech bar gives is the

wearbuds. The AI plus also launched.

This watch that contains earphones

inside of it which MV have said at the

launch event were also

>> this is the design which we have

designed in India patented in India.

>> Techbar claims this product too is in

fact clearly just this product made by a

Chinese company AI power. What on earth

is happening here? And this is super

weird. If you go on to the official

verified Instagram page of this Chinese

AI power company, they actually posted

about the AI plus launch event with the

caption wherebuds watch great

cooperation with AI plus brand. If this

product was designed entirely in India,

why would a Chinese brand, and yes, I

know they're a Chinese brand because I

asked them and they told me, say great

cooperation. And while we're at it,

doesn't this AI power logo look a little

familiar? As a matter of fact, I've

actually cut out the AI Plus logo here,

and you can watch me live as I show you

that you can place the AI from AI Plus

exactly on top of the AI and AI power.

Does that strike you as two companies

who have nothing to do with each other?

How many Chinese partners can this one

anti-Chinese company have?

14 days later, both of these videos

disappeared from the internet. The Delhi

High Court in India granted AI plus an

exparte injunction against the YouTubers

which means that without hearing them

first techiser and tech bar were now

restrained from publishing disparaging

content about AI plus or M of chef. And

there's one more wrinkle a third person

was named John Doe. This is the court's

way of also saying unnamed future

critic, which means it's the two

YouTubers, but also anyone else that is

banned from and could be charged for

speaking against AI Plus. This clause

has already led to legal action against

at least 10 other YouTube videos. That

is a drastic response. So, I decided

it's time to call in the eagle.

So, could you clarify what exactly an

exparte case is? Exparte is where you

are the only side going in front of the

court. Only one side is presenting their

case. And you can imagine in an

adversarial system that relies on both

parties being there that if you're the

only one in the court, it's a whole lot

easier to present your case than it is

that the other side is contradicting the

things that you are saying.

>> Right. That makes sense. But then in

what kinds of contexts are you expecting

to see exparte?

>> For example, a domestic violence

restraining order. uh often happen

exparte because there are presumably

real safety risks if both parties were

there. So that's an example of something

where an exparte procedure is used more

often.

>> Yeah, that's what's confusing me. This

isn't that at all. This is a tech review

where the reviewers have been critical

to the brand but also the guy behind it

>> in the context of seeking an order

preventing the disclosure of tech news

or a tech news related thing that would

be basically unheard of.

>> He explained that expartate at least in

the US would require you to show

irreparable harm and that if in this

context any damages created could be

solved by just paying someone money i.e.

financial loss, then that wouldn't count

as irreparable.

But that's the US.

>> I do know that the laws are very

different between the United States in

particular and India. In the United

States, you basically cannot be held

liable for defamation if what you're

saying is true. The laws in India are

much more plaintiff friendly and they

are much stricter to the point where

sometimes even saying something that is

true can give rise to a defamation

claim. Okay, got it. All right. Thank

you very much. Appreciate it. So, given

that I'm not in India, I'm going to give

you my opinion, which is allowed here. I

think that if you own a company and

people are criticizing that company and

you, then they're entitled to that. If

you disagree with them, I don't think

you should be able to go for an

emergency gag order like this. That

doesn't mean you sit in silence. I think

you should just make your own video.

Explain why and that message will find

the audience that it needs to. In fact,

you know what? That's exactly what Carl

Pay does whenever people roast his

nothing products. And I rate him for

that.

Okay, I feel like we've established how

the product isn't as Indian as we've

been led to believe. How this CEO has

gone to an unprecedented extreme when

called out for it. But before we take

this all to the big man himself, I've

been trying to figure out cuz this is

very important when you're assessing how

guilty someone is. Does this company

deserve our benefit of the doubt? Yeah,

it's a no from me, Chief. It's just

interesting how on YouTube these phones

were getting absolutely cooked, but on

AI Plus's own website, every single

phone seems to have a flawless five-star

review. And then you click into those

reviews and you realize it's a fivestar

review no matter what people are saying.

Some people are literally just filling

out support forms seemingly with

questions like, "Where I buy now? Can

you please guide me?" Yeah, that's a

glowing five-star review if I've ever

seen one. And then you realize, oh wait,

it doesn't even matter if they're

actually saying it sucks. Like this

comment here, it's a five-star. A lot of

the reviews on Flipkart are just as

organic. The screen quality is great and

the camera performs well. The display

looks great and the camera is reliable.

The display is sharp and the camera is

solid. It's almost as if some of these

reviews are generated, but no, surely

not. Not from the company who has ended

their official terms and conditions

section with, "Let me know if you'd also

like a downloadable version, a version

for your Shopify website's policy page,

or tailored clauses for international

customers or B2B transactions." Oh, you

guys starting to get the same picture

that I am about this brand? Or how do

you remember that borderline racist

advert with the loan and the Chinese

man? Does it feel just a little bit

ironic that with an ad like that, this

AI Plus site also reads, "You while

providing your personal information over

the platform, consent to us and other

third parties like credit bureaus to

contact you through SMS, instant

messaging apps, call and/or email." And

worse still, if we smack this same link

into the Wayback Machine, it used to

specifically spell out personal loans.

Whoops. I could keep going. A lot of the

marketing material appears not entirely

original. They've posted photos claiming

to be taken on their phones that every

photographer I have sent them to has

confidently said is basically not

possible. But ultimately, I decided we

have enough questions now that we need

to take them to the CEO himself. Now, I

have actually called Mardov once

already, but what he said was so

confusing. It felt like he was

constantly changing his mind as he was

speaking. So, I've taken everything he

said. I've distilled it down to the key

things that I think really matter in

this case. And now it's time to lay it

all out in front of him to really

properly in one go confront him.

Right. Let's do this.

>> Yeah. Great. Great setup, huh?

>> You're getting the full BTS here.

Yesterday, I think the AI Plus website

went down. Did that have something to do

with our conversation?

>> Yeah, I'm removing everything. I'm

redoing it. I put up after your

feedback, I put up about a special team,

hired a website agency on the weekend.

>> Well, I noticed when the website was

launched again, the reviews section was

gone. I was happy to see that. So, the

website did suck, but at least he's

taken the feedback and started actioning

it pretty quickly between our first and

second conversation. We were off to a

good start. One of the main reasons your

brand exists is you're trying to, you

know, build things in India from now. A

part of it from what I understand is

that you've also expressed a lot of

concern about Chinese phones. What

exactly makes these Chinese phones a

risk in your mind?

>> Chinese phones are not a risk in my

mind.

>> Okay,

>> let's divide economy and consumers

first. They are not risk to the

consumers. I'm talking about the economy

wherein the revenues and the technology

transmit the technology knowh how from

last 10 years intentionally or

nonintentionally has not been

transferred to India.

>> Okay. But then this advert it's implying

very strongly that Chinese phone not

safe AI plus this advert is made for a

consumer right?

>> Yeah there were 300 Chinese apps which

are banned in India and it was a app

which was basically for small loans or

for a fintech loans and there were a lot

of suicide cases around it. So if you're

talking about an particular ad I'm just

an 8 months old brand. I would have made

a lot of mistakes and I admit to the lot

of mistakes which I would have made it.

So would you say this advert is an

example of a mistake?

>> I would not say that that's a complete

mistake. You stand by the ad.

>> Yeah.

>> You stand by it. Yeah. Okay. So he says

the ad is fine because it's based off a

bunch of real Chinese apps that did

cause people to lose money. But still

for more reasons than one, I don't think

this is the kind of messaging that

anyone should be doubling down on.

Moving past that though, in our first

interview, we asked Mavv about the three

Chinese apps that the YouTubers found on

their phones. Were they real? and he

said

>> yes there were but that was not on the

Indian version that was on the global

version for Nepal for Indonesia and for

Sri Lanka and every other countries

which I'm testing

>> so you're saying that no one who buys

one of these phones in India will get

any of these apps but I need to ask you

that because I'm holding one of them

bought in India and I have these apps I

feel like as soon as I revealed that I

too was holding the phone Marv kind of

pivoted

>> which version are you holding it in That

is what I have to check. I'm again

saying you yes I'm not saying no. This

were probably the initial testing units

not at all possible.

>> So specifically in a really concise way

what are you suggesting has happened

here? Why do I still have these apps on

my phone?

>> See I just have to check the kernel

source has been picked or not. I do not

have the device with me. I do not know

what exactly has happened until unless I

see the device.

>> What do you think has happened given

that I can guarantee you this phone has

come out of the box. It's been booted up

and it's been connected to Wi-Fi.

>> See, I'm again telling you I really need

to check the software and version five

you are saying is a December 25 software

which is from some small account which

was never a software which was ever

there. That is the reason I have to

check what has happened is it been

tweaked

>> but you're saying that and you've told

me this before as well that launch

devices don't have these Chinese apps on

them. Is that right?

>> Yeah. All the current devices which have

been launched they do not have any

Chinese apps. Pulse 2 as well. Nova 2.

>> I'm talking about Ultra which I just

recently launched.

>> What about the Pulse 2? Does that have

Chinese apps?

>> No, they don't not have 110%. They

should not have it.

>> Okay. So, what would you say then if I

say I've got mountains of evidence of

your own customers on Flipkart who all

show images of these apps on their

phones, including

>> reals, content from all over the place,

YouTube tutorials.

>> That's what I'm trying to tell you,

right? I'm not sure that you know again

I have not gone through that content

what you're saying what I said

guarantees about Nova 2 and Nova ultra I

definitely guaranteed that right

>> I want to show you something right now

so I didn't tell him this but as well as

the Pulse 2 and the Nova flip phone I

also have one of the Nova 2Os that he's

so insistent is completely spro free yes

I hired someone on Fiverr to buy a lot

of phones for me but guess what first

time I booted it up it had all three

Chinese spro Procom apps installed. Now,

there was an update and sure enough,

when I installed it, the apps did

disappear. But him sitting there acting

like I'm absolutely crazy for suggesting

that these apps were on at least some of

his phones at launch when I've seen them

across like 30 different sources at this

point is not the problem that I thought

I'd be having. Not to mention that even

with those apps gone on my Nova SPRO

weather clock, I wonder what SPRO stands

for.

>> Can you just do me one favor? If you can

just tell your person to buy a new

device in India and open up and check it

because I also want to understand

>> is that very real? Yes or no? I'm more

than willing because I also want to go

through it. If I made a mistake, I will

admit it.

>> But do you understand why that's quite

hard for me to get behind given that

this was the predominant message in the

YouTube videos that have been forced to

be taken down, right? Is that these

Chinese apps exist? You're definitely

aware of this situation. Why is it that

now you're telling me, "Oh, if this is a

problem, I'll look into it."

>> No, I was also telling the same thing to

them. It was not that it was only about

the Chinese apps. But at the same time,

what phone software which you are

telling me right now, that version was

never existing, which you are telling me

right now. It has never been existed.

I've checked all the records. It has

never been existed.

>> What does it mean for software to have

never existed before? I will spare you

the full conversation here, but

basically I spent 15 full minutes trying

to see if I can get Marv to admit that

just something is wrong here that needs

internal investigation. It's blatantly

obvious to me, but he just kept

insisting that the software on my phone

didn't exist. And I still don't

understand what that means. Of course it

exists. I'm stuck on it. Now whether or

not this is the reason for the lack of

updates, this absurd inconsistency

between what he seems to think is on the

phones versus what actually is does line

up very well with what something that

the industry insider warned us about

>> because the biggest issue is also on the

quality control. They will be okay with

a certain level of defects. When you

handle secondhand components, you know,

when you kind of realize that one

component or one phone has a defect, you

cannot trace the initial batch to

understand where the problem is from and

how you can fix it. I myself have bought

one of these phones from Flipkart to

test it and I'm not seeing any kind of

software update. They're telling us that

there should be some sort of March

software update. I've only got December.

Could this lack of quality control be

the reason that some people are not

getting the software update which should

get rid of these Chinese apps?

>> Oh yeah, of course. I mean 100%.

>> Oh, also do you know how Marv asked me

to buy another device to check? Well, I

did. I bought two more on his request. I

asked our Fiverr contact to get one from

Flipkart and one from Amazon in India.

And would you believe it, even those

phones, both of them bought in India,

set up in India, had all the Chinese

apps still there and no update

available. So, the last thing I'm going

to say about this Chinese app situation

is either Marav is incredibly alarmingly

unaware of the state of his own devices

or he's gaslighting me and I don't know

which one is worse. Anyway, in the last

call, I also brought up the topic of

bloatware. Now, one of the main selling

points of this phone, you've talked

about it in your podcast quite a bit, is

you're trying to kind of erase bloatware

free.

>> When you go into the game space, you do

see a bunch of preloaded games. And I

wanted to ask,

my friend, I I don't think so is there

the final version anymore. It's not

there. During the December, we were

testing multiple hundreds of softwares

and games on a particular device. you

will see some bloodware free only as of

now right and we like to keep that way

itself there's no gaming app there's no

nothing

>> you said to me and tell me if I'm

understanding this right that on launch

software all the bloatware is gone

>> yeah everything has gone out

>> it's worth mentioning to you that I have

also found you know all these flip cart

customers again they also have game

space and this is on the second

generation phone

>> I'm again telling you which version is

it I want want you to pick up a new

version. You've been speaking again and

again. Repetitive.

>> It's repetitive cuz I don't understand.

How can he keep denying something that's

so obviously there? Gamespace, including

all the bloatware games, exist on my

Pulse 2 phone. It exists on other

people's YouTube videos. It even exists

on my Nova 2 phone, which has had the

latest update. Anyways, we weren't

making progress here, so I decided to

move on. In our first call, Mardav also

gave a very confusing answer as to what

it means for his products to be made in

India. If everything is expertly

imagined in India,

>> this product is not just made in India.

It's confidently imagined

>> and yet you're saying you're an ODM,

then is this not imagined in China

originally? The Pulse Swan was imagined

in China, just to be clear.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And basically, because

that's when I learned from it. On the

last call, you talked about how the

pulse one was imagined in China and that

you learned from it. Is that right?

>> I did not say then I what did I say then

that pulse one is a basic form. You do

not need to design on it because there

are ready solutions around it for the

basic 4G and the basic 5G phones. So for

me to imagine over there or imagine over

here is one and the same thing.

>> I guess I just want you to understand

that the reason there is so much

scrutiny in this case is just because of

how much you leaned into it in that

launch event. I think going forward from

the next launch event I think I'll be

more specific

>> on what exactly which components are

buying from which country which no brand

has done it. I want you to buy my flip

phone also from India and see

specifically from day one I have given

credits to ZT on the boxes.

>> All right let's talk about ZTE shall we?

So, I had asked Mardiff about how the

flip phone resembles a ZT on our last

call and he confirmed

>> it is from ZTE only.

>> This is still pitched as an AI plus

branded phone. You've got your own name

for it. You've got your own branding for

it. If I was an AI plus fan because of,

you know, what I've learned about the

company, I would think, oh great, you

know, a phone that's keeping my data in

India.

>> I never deceived AI plus users by saying

that this is something which I've

designed in India. This I very

categorically say that this is the phone

which also has a ZTE label on the phone

box.

>> He thinks it's enough that the thing has

ZTE on the box. I disagree since this

tiny footnote is the only reference to

ZTE on the box. And having sat through

the entire launch event, I can confirm

that the name ZTE was not mentioned once

during it. But now is where I think I

started to really push his buttons.

Okay, so near the end now, but I just

wanted to ask you this AI power company

that we talked about last time. When did

you start working with them?

>> So I would say it would be 2022 end or

2023 early where I started interacting

with them for buying a brand name. Air

power is a good name to have it.

>> What I want to clarify then is with

bbuds for example, did they make the

product? Did you make the product or was

it co-developed?

>> It was co-developed together. Would you

still count that as like designed in

India if you're saying you've

co-developed it with a company where

>> already I filed a patent for it alone?

>> That's okay. You can have the patent. I

believe that but it's just you know the

co-founders of this company are Chinese.

The HQ is in

>> I'm again telling you I have the patent

not only in India but I have a patent in

about 60 countries for that. So I have

the patent with me for the technology

and I invested in the technology. Hence

I know that you know basically I was

able to buy that patent for it. Now, the

reason I'm pushing so hard is what he's

saying doesn't make any sense to me.

He's told us that he started working

with this company in 2022, 2023, right?

There are hundreds of pieces of content

showing that were buds as a brand and

series of products existed years before

that. So, is it possible that Marv had

some input into the design of this

latest generation of Wearbuds? Perhaps.

But do I think it's fair for him to then

claim that his product was designed in

India?

>> No.

No, I don't. The way I see it, this is a

bit like if I went into Apple. They've

already been making iPhones for 20

years, but just because I potentially

suggested some things for the iPhone 18,

I call the iPhone 18 designed by Aaron.

But now it was time to bring up the

elephant in the room. When I asked him

before why did he feel like it was right

to order those YouTube videos down, he

said,

>> "They put up a video, so we reached out

to them

>> that can we resolve your queries? We

reached out to them, but they did not

respond to it. If you are not able to

hear my point, let me at least get an

injunction. We just said that please put

our viewpoint also. You can put your

videos back up along with a follow-up

video that this is what the brand is

also saying and we open for it.

>> And as well as this idea of needing to

hear the brand out first. He also kept

referring to how the YouTuber's videos

contained unverified claims. It was

based on unverified claims having no

third party validation or any audit

validation. See we have just launched a

phone

>> and I would invest in maybe more than 20

to $30 million to just to bring that

particular phone and if after investing

an huge amount of money to bring two

devices back without putting even my

side of the story I would have been

completely geoparadized my entire sales

and the launch.

>> Okay. So, I can understand the feeling

of investing tons of money into your

next big venture. I can understand the

pain of people criticizing it and then

the panic that you might feel if they

don't respond to you when you reach out.

But what I don't understand is this idea

that if they're not responding, let me

at least get an injunction. As if that's

just a normal thing to do when people

don't say what you want. Because you got

to remember, there's a power dynamic

here. This company is worth tens of

millions of dollars. They can sue

YouTubers if they want and create this

dystopian situation where only their

side of the story is the allowed truth.

I've seen firsthand the emotional

turmoil that this has caused people. And

so, what creator, especially the smaller

ones, are going to risk everything to

challenge a company like this if core

orders become the precedent? That's just

not on the freedom for reviews to be

authentic without fear is crucial.

Thankfully, and I have no idea if this

is in response to how hard I pushed back

or something completely unrelated,

between our first call and our second,

MV seemed to have had a change of heart.

>> I was thinking over this weekend, I

don't think so that probably I should

have been so harsh in putting up a case.

It's a community which I think I should

respect even more. I did something in

Jiffy. I think I should uh have not done

it and probably I think I'm even willing

to, you know, just take it back. Do you

feel like it is is reasonable to expect

any YouTuber, any journalist to have a

third-party audit and to like approach

you first before pointing out issues on

your devices?

>> I would not uh say that, you know, they

should approach me first.

>> Okay.

>> But if I'm trying to approach them, at

least be responsive to it. I'm willing

to see and improve and learn from it.

>> Okay.

>> But being nonresponsive made me more, I

would say, in a jify situation. But my

actually the fight was not with any of

the YouTubers. The fight was with an

agency who was in between trying to then

manipulate towards creating more

misunderstandings between brand and

YouTubers.

>> So for the record, you don't agree that

companies should take down or behave in

the way that you did.

>> Yeah, I agree. I I completely on records

I agree that I think I did something in

haste which I think probably I should

not have done it against the creators.

I'm again saying my fight is against the

agencies.

>> What he means by agencies, by the way,

is the agencies that manage YouTubers,

the ones that companies like AI Plus

would contact presumably to arrange

brand deals with creators. So, I'm

really glad that he said that he's made

a mistake and he's likely going to try

and reverse it, but has he convinced me

that he genuinely sees the error in his

ways?

No, he has not. This feels a lot more

like he's seen the error of what it

means to get on the wrong side of every

YouTuber ever, which is, I'm guessing,

why he's now deflecting to blaming the

agencies. And this point, he's made

crystal clear with a follow-up third

phone call and message to clarify. But

what's just come to light makes this

feel, to me, at least like far too

little too late. Because Techweiser just

had their first hearing in court. This

is the first time they got to present

their side of the story and they claimed

that the only reason Marv was able to

get this ex party order is by using

tricks. So remember I said that one of

the defendants named was John Doe. Well,

turns out that Marv named John Doe as

the main defendant. What that means is

while you usually have to serve notice

to a defendant so they have a chance to

defend themselves by making the main

defendant not a real person, the court

accepted that you can't warn them in

advance. So you put John Doe there only

so as to to obiate the need and to to

ensure that nobody appears on day one to

defend what they've done. And then on

top of that to cover themselves even

when they did contact Techiser with the

legal order they sent it to an email

address that Techweiser says doesn't

exist. Even though AI Plus has

Techiser's real email and has used it

multiple times before to contact them.

By sending the court order to this

supposedly fake email where they knew

Techweiser wouldn't see it, it meant

that the YouTuber wouldn't know about

the court case until it was too late.

>> He knows who I am. He knows all details.

He knows my reputation and my

credibility, but strangely can't find my

email ID to which he just corresponded 2

days before he filed the suit.

>> And in doing all this, AI Plus in a way

have created their ideal outcome.

They've already successfully suppressed

the negative coverage for weeks. So it

almost doesn't matter if they lose the

case when it ends in August or later and

the videos come back online

>> because by then the content would have

been off in this critical juncture

coinciding with the launch of their

product.

>> So now with that context MV now telling

me that he wants to rescend his core

order doesn't really mean anything and

so upon hearing this and seeing the

evidence the judge has decided that Mav

has to be summoned into court to answer

for himself.

>> Who is the plaintiff in this?

>> Hello Mr. Madav set I believe has signed

for the plaintiff.

>> Please have him here after tomorrow. We

need some answers permit but this kind

of a thing we are not going to permit

let nobody be under this impression that

they can put full wool over our eyes. We

want to dispel this notion.

>> Despite Mav's noble words to me, he

failed to show up in court meaning that

the next hearing has been pushed to the

first week of August. The YouTuber's

videos are still down while new

marketing campaigns to promote AI plus

products are still coming out. The final

decision awaits, but I know where I sit.

And by the way, I think there's a decent

chance that AI Plus or someone tries to

geollock this video to block it in

India. If that happens, use a VPN like

Surf Shark, our sponsor. Get around it

and just make sure this message is

heard. Link below for the best deal

possible on Surf Shark so you're ready.

And with the code boss, it's less than

$2 a month.