Damn, the Cluely ragebait got us

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if cheating was just…the future of work? That’s the pitch behind Cluely, the viral AI startup that claims its stealthy browser overlay is “undetectable” and can help users bluff their way through everything from job interviews to exams. The company has raised $5.3 million and sparked a wave of backlash from startups building tools to catch cheaters. Cluely’s response? They’ll just build smart glasses or brain chips. Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Max Zeff and Anthony Ha are getting into the week’s headlines, including whether Cluely’s viral strategy is genius, gross, or both, and what it says about the future of work in the AI age. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Sam Altman’s latest World event in San Francisco where eyeball scans met privacy concerns Why Shein’s IPO is under threat from new tariffs, and how companies like Amazon are bracing for 100%+ duty increases on Chinese goods Waymo and Toyota’s agreement to explore autonomous tech integration The messy world of AI benchmarks and which major companies are allegedly gaming the system with LM Arena Equity will be back next week, so stay tuned! Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Affinity, the most trusted CRM for private capital.
0:06.3	I was this close last night to letting Sam Altman scan my eyeballs.
0:12.3	Never. And then what happened? No. I came to my senses. I decided against it. I was at Sam
0:19.0	Altman's world event last night in San Francisco, and there were all kinds of people there who were getting in front of these big metal orbs and scanning their eyeballs to sign up for their identification service. And they even unveiled a mobile device where you could take this scanning orb on the go and scan your eyeball wherever you are.
0:38.4	And Anthony, I'm just curious, how likely are you to get your eyeball scanned by Sam Walman?
0:44.0	I would say that the odds are pretty close to zero.
0:47.3	I mean, world is such a complicated thing that we probably don't have time to explain,
0:50.9	but it's also connected to Web 3, a bunch of stuff that I'm not super interested in. We're also at this moment where I feel like there was a period where people
0:57.8	were saying, hey, maybe don't give your genetic data to 23 and me. That's being vindicated right
1:02.5	now. So I would say scanning your eyeballs is not exactly the same, but kind of in the same category.
1:07.9	I think scanning your eyeballs and putting it on the blockchain to confirm whether
1:12.2	you're a human or not is potentially very bad. And the description that the company gives for
1:19.8	its purposes is so vague and so open that it just gives me concern. So I would say this, unless someone is holding me down and opening my eye, they will not get my eyeball scan.
1:34.4	Right.
1:34.7	You're doing a gesture right now, which you say for our listeners, you're sort of showing what that might be like.
1:39.0	Yeah, exactly.
1:40.5	But you know what?
1:41.1	I think we're going to talk about Sam Altman and not scanning eyeballs, but other stuff a little bit later. Welcome back to Equity, Tech Runtas flagship podcast about the business of startups. It is Friday, May 2nd. I'm Kirsten Koresak, transportation editor.
1:56.2	I'm Max, senior reporter. And I'm, wait, are we doing full names or just first names?
2:01.4	I got thrown.
2:05.4	And I'm Anthony Hot, weekend editor.
2:07.6	Cool.
	...

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