David Whale and his son Albi in front of code written on a window at their central Christchurch office, a small, dingy room above a bike shop, on Thursday.

The New Zealand group behind a supposedly groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence (AI) programme "ran out of money" despite claiming $450 million in assets.

The Terrible Foundation claimed to be building an advanced AI programme in Christchurch that could write up doctor's notes, run a company and talk to people. The foundation's co-trustees, David Whale and his 26-year-old son Albi Whale, also claimed they had donated to many causes, including Canterbury charity Living Springs. But the claims about the AI and the donations have been cast into doubt by recent reports.

Living Springs said a promised donation of $7000 towards a special camp for disadvantaged children was never paid by the Terrible Foundation. It has also emerged that in 2013 the University of Canterbury Students' Association (UCSA) rejected an offer from Albi Whale to provide a telecom deal for students because they thought his offer was "all smoke and mirrors".

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Albi Whale, a high school dropout touted as a tech wunderkind.

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Last week, Albi Whale said the Living Springs donation had been put on hold due to a "mistake". But David Whale this week said the donation was not made because they "ran out of money".

"The intention was to do that and do it again this year. But, given the current stuff (media coverage), that is not going to happen," he said.

IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF Albi Whale at his office, which is a small, mezzanine style room that is almost completely bare, with one large, thick wooden table pushed against a wall and two old couches.

"You can only give money away if you have money. Unfortunately, at Christmas time we didn't have the funds available to achieve that."

The foundation's performance report to the Charities Services from July 2017 claimed $450m in assets, including $2m in cash, $10m in investments and $442m worth of property, plant and equipment.

Living Springs business development manager Wendy Duggan said Terrible approved funding in August, but backed out in November citing "unexpected costs attributed to one of their medical research projects".

She said David Whale also offered the services of their AI programme, named Zach, to analyse the success of their camp for students from low-decile schools.

"There was quite a bit of excitement about this AI machine that they had. At some stage we toyed with the idea of seeing what capacity it would bring in dealing with feedback and gauging results and the impact of camp," she said.

"The idea was that Zach would take over and ask better questions."

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Former UCSA president Erin Jackson said Albi Whale approached them in 2013 with a telecom deal for students. The offer was rejected after investigating some of his "very big and bold" claims.

"It was all smoke and mirrors," she said.

"We asked questions and nothing seemed to stack up … It was nothing sinister, but nothing stacked up. We weren't comfortable with entering into an agreement.

"It never went anywhere. There were red flags and red flags. I look back and think it was a really good decision."

David Whale ended the interview with Stuff before the UCSA claim could be put to him. He did not reply to a subsequent email outlining the claim.

He said recent media coverage of the Terrible Foundation was unfair and planned to recruit a public relations firm to handle media questions.

"I am over the whole lot of it because it is just stupid."