By RARZACK OLAEGBE
You can use AI for anything, including cheating.
Some business executives are two-faced. In the 1990s, some of them would buy the general-interest lewd tabloid called Lagos Weekend from the newsstand on Friday and tuck it under the intellectually minded Guardian newspaper. It was a façade. This smokescreen created an impression of a serious-minded, all-business persona. Aha.
On the one hand
Beneath the smokescreen lurked personalities who shared bedsheets with pornography and gossip magazines. These same individuals would invest in underground businesses and walk the street in sartorial suits. Anyway, who would have thought such serious-looking businesspeople would indulge in pornography?
On the other hand
Society frowns at some issues and embraces others. It is akin to some rusticated undergraduates who founded a company and got several million dollars from investors. What led to their expulsion was the same thing that brought them fame and fortune. It is akin to the venture capitalists who preached morals on Sunday but invested in gun running on Monday. Well, they would say it is a business, not a religion. Anyway, some highly placed individuals have not sold their hearts, unlike the venture capitalists who invested in a business that assists users in cheating.
In the long term
Who are the venture capitalists who invested in Cluely, the AI start-up that helps users cheat? I do not know. However, Cluely is a start-up that got investors’ million dollars. The start-up claimed to help users cheat on job interviews, examinations, and sales calls. It raised 15 million dollars in the initial fundraising. Andreessen Horowitz, one of the founders of Cluely, announced it recently with a video posted on X.
The two investors who were not part of the deal told TechCrunch they believed Cluely’s post-money valuation is around 120 million dollars. That is 192 billion naira. Horowitz declined to comment on that figure. Cluely CEO, Roy Lee, also kept mum. The start-up’s new funding came two months after it raised 5.3 million dollars in seed funding. Two firms led the business: Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.
Cluely was co-founded by a 21-year-old, Roy Lee, and Neel Shanmugam. Columbia University suspended the two undergraduates for developing an undetectable AI-powered tool called “Interview Coder” to help engineers cheat on technical interviews. Lee said Cluely it was profitable. This is where the venture capitalists placed their bets.
Ah, the school expelled the students. Now the society has embraced them. The wizkids became millionaires overnight. The journey to fame and fortune was to help users of their tool cheat. The implication is that you can use AI for anything, including cheating, and some investors would bankroll your venture. That is where some venture capitalists put their mouths.
Why it matters
TechCrunch reported that Cluely published a slick but polarising video of Lee using a hidden AI assistant to lie to a woman about his age, and even his knowledge of art, on a date at a fancy restaurant. AI artwork. AI works.
In the short term
Have you met some tech start-ups that missed venture capitalists’ millions? They got technical mentorship from Google and AI experts worth 350,000 dollars. Two bets.
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