Student suspended from Ivy League school for cheating raises $5.3M for AI tool that enables more cheating

Chungin Lee, a 21-year-old who was suspended by the Ivy League university last month for using AI assistance in intership interviews with tech giants like Amazon and Meta, raised the money in a seed funding round led by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.

The idea for Cluely originated after Lee was suspended from Columbia for co-creating an AI tool designed to help software engineers cheat on technical job interviews. That tool, initially called Interview Coder, evolved into Cluely—a San Francisco-based platform enabling users to discreetly receive AI assistance during exams, sales calls, and interviews through an undetectable in-browser interface.

"We want to cheat on everything. Sales calls. Meetings. Negotiations. If there's a faster way to win, we'll take it."

"It sees your screen. Hears your audio. Feeds you answers in real time," Cluely's website describes the tool.

The website likens the product to now-accepted tools like calculators and spellcheckers, which were once seen as unfair advantages. The company also released a launch video, drawing mixed reactions, in which Lee uses the tool on a dinner date to bluff about his age and art knowledge, with awkward results.

"To be honest, I don't think this is cheating. Every single time technology has made people smarter, the world panics. Then it adapts. Then it forgets. And suddenly, it's normal," Lee, wrote on his LinkedIn on Monday.

"Humanity is at an inflection point. AI will transform the entire world, and it will be more disruptive than anything we've ever seen," said Lee.

Some on X praised the video for its attention-grabbing concept, while others criticized it, comparing it to the dystopian sci-fi television series "Black Mirror."

Lee, who now serves as CEO of Cluely, told TechCrunch that the startup surpassed $3 million in annual recurring revenue this month.

His co-founder, COO Neel Shanmugam—also 21 and a former Columbia student—faced similar disciplinary issues over the project.

According to Columbia's student newspaper, both founders have since left the university.