Cluely’s Co-Founder Unfazed by Cheating Detectors, Eyes ChatGPT Domination
AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication
Cluely, an AI startup that uses a hidden in-browser window to analyze online conversations, has gained significant attention with its claim of having an "undetectability" feature that allows users to "cheat on everything." The company's co-founder, Roy Lee, was suspended from Columbia University for using Cluely, originally called Interview Coder, to cheat on a coding test when applying for a developer job at Amazon. On Tuesday, another Columbia University student, Patrick Shen, announced on X that he had built Truely, a product designed to detect the use of unauthorized applications by interviewees or others during online meetings. Truely markets itself as an "anti-Cluely" and claims it can detect Cluely's usage. However, Lee is unfazed by Truely's launch. In an interview with TechCrunch, Lee stated, "We don't care if we're able to be detected or not. The invisibility function is not a core feature of Cluely. It's a nifty add-on. In fact, most enterprises opt to disable the invisibility altogether because of legal implications." Lee responded to Shen on X, praising Truely but adding that Cluely "will likely start prompting our users to be much more transparent about usage." Since securing a $15 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz last month, Cluely has shifted its marketing strategy away from promoting 'cheating.' The company's tagline has recently been changed from "cheat on everything" to "Everything You Need. Before You Ask. … This feels like cheating." Cluely's marketing tactics have been described as rage-bait marketing, and now it seems that the company has baited us into thinking of its technology as a cheating tool. However, Lee has much bigger ambitions for Cluely: to take the place of ChatGPT. "Every time you would reach for chatgpt.com, our goal is to create a world where you instead reach for Cluely," Lee said. "Cluely does functionally the same thing as ChatGPT. The only difference is that it also knows what's on your screen and hears what's going on in your audio."
