SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The CEO was kicked out of one of America’s most prestigious universities and recently had a party at the company office that was busted by the cops. The company’s LinkedIn page advertises “invisible AI to cheat on everything.” We’re talking of course, about San Francisco’s buzzy new artificial intelligence startup, Cluely.
Cluely’s product, according to its LinkedIn page, is “an invisible desktop assistant that reimagines how humans will interact with technology.” According to the Cluely website, the technology integrates with most major platforms, including Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoom, and Google Chat and listens through your device’s microphone, recordings or real-time calls, or hidden Bluetooth microphones.
Once it hears what’s being said, Cluely AI uses “AI-powered voice recognition” to transcribe speech instantly, identify who is speaking, and add timestamps for words and phrases. The AI then provides summaries and analysis in real-time.
Astronomer CEO goes viral after being caught on Coldplay kiss cam
It can be used for practical things like lecture, meeting and note taking and online tutoring. But it’s also designed to be used for cheating on sales calls, cheating on exams, surveillance in conversations, and deepfake-style interviews.
The company does specify that the more controversial uses cases are “not endorsed but often discussed.”
The startup was founded by Roy Lee, a 21-year-old CEO who was famously kicked out of Columbia University and whose previous product launch was Interview Coder, an invisible desktop application designed to help cheat in coding interviews. It might all sound a little out there, but the small startup has some very serious backing.
Recently Cluely raised $15 million in Series A funding with backing by Andreessen Horowitz, the multi-billion-dollar Menlo Park venture capital firm. TechCrunch spoke to two investors who said they believed Cluely’s post-money valuation is around $120 million.
Lee, who recently threw a party at Cluely’s headquarters that was busted by San Francisco police, says the company is already profitable. According to the company’s LinkedIn page, it currently has less than a dozen employees, all of whom work in the office, six days a week.
The company is the latest AI startup to take a “rage baiting” approach to its advertising and marketing.
But the firm’s financial backers believe that beyond all the hype, Cluely’s product could provide real value.
“We see real opportunity in Cluely’s vision to pioneer a new category of proactive, multimodal AI assistants. Unlike traditional note-taking and transcription products, Cluely combines instantaneous responsiveness with deep contextual understanding, effectively positioning it across the consumer and enterprise markets,” read a press release. “Roy and his team are building with intention, creativity, and velocity, developing products that resonate deeply, scale quickly, and engage users in novel ways. We’re thrilled to support them on this journey.”
In a world where sporting Meta AI-enabled Ray Bans is widely acceptable, lines are already getting blurred. What Cluely is actually offering as a product doesn’t sound all that different, just a little sneakier. But maybe that’s the point?
Source:: News San Francisco – KRON 4
About Author
