Columbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M
a year ago
- #AI
- #controversy
- #startup
- 21-year-old Chungin 'Roy' Lee raised $5.3M in seed funding for his startup Cluely, an AI tool designed to 'cheat' on exams, sales calls, and job interviews.
- Cluely originated from a viral X thread where Lee was suspended from Columbia University for developing an AI tool to cheat on software engineering job interviews.
- The startup's tool, originally called Interview Coder, operates via a hidden in-browser window undetectable by interviewers or test givers.
- Cluely compares its AI tool to past inventions like calculators and spellcheck, which were initially criticized as 'cheating.'
- A controversial launch video showed Lee using Cluely's AI to lie on a date, drawing comparisons to 'Black Mirror.'
- Cluely has surpassed $3M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and was co-founded by Neel Shanmugam, another 21-year-old former Columbia student.
- Both co-founders dropped out of Columbia following disciplinary actions related to their AI tool.
- Cluely started as a tool to cheat on LeetCode, a coding platform the founders consider outdated.
- Lee claims to have secured an Amazon internship using Cluely, though Amazon prohibits unauthorized tools in interviews.
- Cluely is among several controversial AI startups launched recently, including one aiming to replace all human workers.