On Sunday, 21-year-old Chungin Roy Lee revealed hes raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures for his startup, Cluely, that provides an AI tool to cheat on everything.The startup was born after Lee published in a viral X thread that he was suspended by Columbia University after he and his co-founder established a tool to cheat on task interviews for software application engineers.That tool, initially called Interview Coder, is now part of their San Francisco-based start-up Cluely.
It provides its users the chance to cheat on things like tests, sales calls, and task interviews thanks to a concealed in-browser window that cant be viewed by the interviewer or test giver.Cluely has published a manifesto comparing itself to creations like the calculator and spellcheck, which were initially derided as cheating.Cluely also released a slickly produced, but polarizing, launch video of Lee using a concealed AI assistant to (unsuccessfully) lie to a lady about his age, and even his understanding of art, on a date at an expensive dining establishment: While some praised the video for getting peoples attention, others derided it as reminiscent of the dystopian sci-fi television show Black Mirror: Lee, who is Cluelys CEO, informed A Technology NewsRoom the AI cheating tool went beyond $3 million in ARR previously this month.The startups other co-founder is another 21-year-old previous Columbia trainee, Neel Shanmugam, who is Cluelys COO.
Shanmugam was also embroiled in disciplinary procedures at Columbia over the AI tool.
Both co-founders have actually left of Columbia, the college students paper reported recently.
Columbia decreased to comment, citing trainee personal privacy laws.Cluely started as a tool for developers to cheat on knowledge of LeetCode, a platform for coding questions that some in software application engineering circles including Cluelys founders, naturally consider outdated and a waste of time.Lee states he was able to snag an internship with Amazon using the AI unfaithful tool.
Amazon declined to talk about Lees specific case to A Technology NewsRoom, but stated its job prospects should acknowledge they wont use unapproved tools throughout the interview process.Cluely isnt the only controversial AI startup released this month.
Previously, a well known AI researcher announced his own startup with the specified mission of changing all human employees all over, triggering a brouhaha of its own on X.