Some hail it as a revolution in communication. Others call it the downfall of human interaction.
Not long ago, Roy Lee was just a student at Columbia University who stirred controversy for using AI during job interviews at top tech firms. Today, he's the founder of Cluely, a startup that’s raised $5.3 million in funding and promises not just help with conversations, but full-on support for any social situation — from business meetings to romantic dates.
Cluely went viral thanks to a video Lee posted on X. In it, he’s on a date, with a large digital interface between him and his date, suggesting what she might be interested in talking about and how he should respond. Lee doesn’t see this as deception, but as a new normal — something society just hasn’t adapted to yet.
The app is simple: it sees through a camera, hears through a mic, and instantly suggests responses, overlaying them onto the user’s display. Think voice-enabled ChatGPT, but embedded in AR glasses. Under the hood, it's powered by familiar language models, slightly tweaked by Lee’s team. But as Lee himself says, the magic isn’t in the tech — it’s in the interface that makes the user forget they're not thinking on their own.
Journalists who tested Cluely in a mock interview found the app lacking in speed and originality. Responses felt like they had just been generated in a browser, and the 20-second lag between question and answer shattered the flow of conversation. In real interviews, that kind of lag could be fatal. Lee claims the interface will get faster — especially if you turn off screen recording and leave only audio input.
But it’s Lee’s bold vision of the future that underpins Cluely’s philosophy: a world where you never need to memorize useless information again. He believes traditional education will fade, replaced by a model where kids only learn what genuinely interests them. Cramming? Obsolete.
Lee makes no apologies for what Cluely is — a tool for people who want to "win faster." He likens it to the calculator, which was once considered cheating, too. The point of Cluely, he argues, isn’t to replace human thought but to enhance it — to give everyone the same cognitive edge as AI super-users.
Cluely’s website features a bold manifesto: “We built Cluely so you'd never have to think alone again. While others guess — you already know.” For many, this is unsettling. The video’s comment section is filled with concern about the erosion of authenticity. But Lee says he's used to the criticism — and even welcomes it as proof that he’s on the right path.
If Cluely does become part of everyday communication, the conversation about what constitutes "cheating" may change forever. For Lee, there’s no doubt: the future belongs to the maximalists. His goal isn't to justify deception, but to convince the world that AI has already become an extension of human thought.