> i've always wondered how people haven't built an ai-powered escrow service around this.

They did, it just runs on the same freelancer platform with all of the people, and there is no AI disclosure (obviously)

Also, "escrow service" existed way before AI. It was (or is?) popular to hire a bunch of cheap students/indians, find projects on a freelance platform (from a single perfect-rated account), and assign one to each developer. Then just underpay developers. Easy money (if you want to be a manager)