This AI Startup created Invisible Application for Cheating, Secured Funding of $5.3 Million

21-year-old Columbia University student, Chungin Lee, who was suspended in March for developing an AI tool to cheat on coding interviews to land summer internships at tech behemoths such as Amazon, Meta, and TikTok, has secured $5.3 million (approximately Rs 45 crore) in funding.

Chungin Lee perceives his project as ‘changing the definition of cheating’ and was successful in building an AI tool called ‘Interview Coder’. He was able to create an invisible application that assisted software engineers who were using LeetCode during technical interviews.

Lee went viral on social media for misleading the largest tech giants and was taken into consideration by Amazon and Meta, causing his suspension from University. However, the suspension from the institution was not frustrating for Lee, instead he made big advances by coming up with ‘Cluely.

‘Cluely’s AI works secretly in the background, helping users during exams, sales calls, or interviews without anyone noticing. The company says it’s no different from calculators or spell-check—tools that were once considered cheating but are now normal.

Lee stated he has raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures for his startup ‘Cluely’, a San-Francisco based company. Lee, who is now Cluely’s CEO, told TechCrunch that the AI tool recently crossed $3 million in annual revenue.

According to reports, the tool was initially developed to assist programmers in bypassing LeetCode assessments. Lee reportedly acknowledged leveraging the tool to secure an internship at Amazon.’They called calculators cheating.

They called Google cheating. The world will say the same about AI. We’re not stopping. Cluely just raised a $5.3M pre-seed to build the future — faster,’ the statement read. The company announced a statement on X, confirming it has raised over $5 million in funding already.

“Everyone in my life told me to quit, but I ignored all advice and kept going. I’ve since come to learn that you need to swing big if you ever wanna make it. Hope this resonates with some of you. This mentality is what inspired me to build Cluely, the ultimate end-state of Interview Coder, and something I never would’ve thought I could build six months ago. This is the most ambitious project I will ever work on,” Lee shared on X.