Controversy surrounding startup that allegedly raised $5.3 million.

Startup Cluely has just raised $5.3 million in funding for its AI tool that helps "cheat" in interviews, exams, and many other real-life situations.

The two co-founders of Cluely . Photo: Cluely .

Earlier this week, Chungin “Roy” Lee (21 years old) announced that he had raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures for his startup, Cluely, which provides an AI tool that can “cheat on everything.”

Cluely was born after Lee recounted his experience of being suspended from Columbia University after he and his co-founder developed a tool to help cheat in job interviews for software engineers.

The tool, originally called Interview Coder, is now part of Cluely. It provides users with the opportunity to "cheat" on things like exams, sales calls, and job interviews through a hidden window in the browser that the interviewer or test setter cannot see.

Cluely also released a product launch video , cleverly produced but inadvertently sparking controversy in the community. It showed co-founder Chungin Lee using a hidden AI assistant to try and lie to a woman about his age and even his artistic knowledge during a date.

While some praised the video for capturing people's attention, others mocked it for being reminiscent of the dystopian science fiction television show "Black Mirror".

Speaking to TechCrunch , CEO Lee said that Cluely's AI tool surpassed $3 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in early April.

Additionally, Neel Shanmuga, co-founder and CTO of Cluely, also faced disciplinary issues at Columbia University related to AI tools. Both Lee and Shanmuga have since left the university to develop their companies.

Lee claimed he secured an internship at Amazon by using AI cheating tools. Furthermore, Cluely wasn't the only controversial AI startup launched in April. Earlier, a prominent AI researcher launched their own startup with the mission of replacing all workers globally, sparking controversy on X.

Source: https://znews.vn/startup-ai-gay-tranh-cai-after-raising-5-3-million-usd-post1547859.html