- Cluely, founded by Columbia dropouts, raises $5.3M for its AI tool that helps users cheat on exams and interviews.
- It’s stealth browser window assists users in secretly passing coding tests and landing tech internships.
- It’s $3M revenue and incendiary video fuel controversy around AI ethics in the workplace.
Two young men, Chungin “Roy” Lee and Neel Shanmugam, both 21 and former Columbia University students, have raised $5.3 million for their company, Cluely.
Cluely produces an AI product that assists users in cheating on job interviews, tests, and sales calls.
It accomplishes this through a stealth browser window that other people, such as interviewers or test monitors, cannot view, providing users with covert assistance in real time.
Cluely’s Origins
It began life as an application named Interview Coder that Lee created to assist software engineers to ace coding tests, such as those on LeetCode, an interview preparation platform.
Lee claimed to have used it to land an internship at Amazon but Amazon stipulates that candidates should not use similar tools. He also used it to secure offers from major tech firms including Meta and TikTok.
Lee’s ambition was not to find jobs but to prove LeetCode interviews are not perfect. His activities earned him a suspension at Columbia, and both of them subsequently dropped out.
Expansion and Scandal
Despite the issues, Cluely has expanded quickly. Lee reports the business already brings in $3 million annually.
Cluely raised capital from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures, demonstrating investors believe in it. The company says its tool is like calculators or spellcheck, which people used to consider as cheating but now they accept.
It even released a video depicting Lee using the tool on a date to pretend he was older and more knowledgeable about art, which some found amusing but others claimed was immoral.
Not everybody is happy with it’s plan. Some say that it promotes deceit and may harm trust at workplaces and schools. Others find that it’s an ingenious method for employing AI.
Cluely’s creators are certain that their resource is the way forward for using technology, yet it’s also bringing lots of argument over whether or not anything is fair.
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