Cluely, a startup that recently gained notoriety for its claims of enabling users to cheat on various tasks, has stirred significant debate within the technology and education sectors. The company markets its secretive in-browser window as “undetectable.” This underappreciated feature has been in the spotlight for supposedly enabling people to cheat on everything from job interviews to college entrance exams.
Chungin “Roy” Lee, who started Cluely, a business that’s raised more than $5.3 million in funding. Next, the company is definitely chomping at the bit to get beyond software in terms of their product. Lee has said he’s confident about the company’s direction. He’s confident that with their brains in these products, electric gooses like smart glasses or brain chips for example to circumvent anti-cheating software is “fairly trivial technologically.”
Cluely’s business model hasn’t been without controversy. Adrian Aamodt, another industry leader who once served on Uber’s board, called the company’s approach “unethical.” In response to that backlash, Cluely did something amazing. Their slogan — which was previously written to endorse cheating on school exams and job interviews — isn’t on their website or manifesto anymore. Nowadays, the company focuses its technology on less controversial uses. It works even better in unexpected ways, e.g., boosting sales call and meeting performance.
Yet as Cluely pivots to align its efforts at larger markets, it is running into competition with Validia and Proctaroo. Validia’s software reportedly activates an alarm if it detects Cluely being used, while Proctaroo claims its platform can identify users of Cluely’s service. Lee rebutted the efficacy of these anti-cheating tools. He likened them to previous unsuccessful attempts at regulation within the video game space.
Lee envisions a future where AI is fully integrated into everyday tasks, stating, “Ultimately, we see a future where everyone uses AI to its utmost potential, and that means planting in large, specific markets, and expanding out from there.” He added that the exact form of their hardware offerings remains undecided: “Whether it’s smart glasses, a transparent glass screen overlay, a recording necklace, or even a brain chip, we’re not sure.”
So far, Cluely is successfully charting the dangers of its evolving business model and aspirations. It’s poised to shape the future intersection of technology with more traditional integrity frameworks in professional and educational contexts.
