Cheating the Cheaters: Clo’s AI Strategy
Key Points
- The speaker argues that Clo (also referred to as Cluey) has deliberately embraced a “cheating” narrative in its branding, but this is a strategic ploy rather than the core of the product.
- Clo’s real value lies in its implementation of “level‑two proactive AI agents” and a standout user‑experience that integrates invisibly across the apps Gen Z and Gen Alpha use.
- Despite flashy marketing, the underlying AI model is only average—comparable to a GPT‑4 level—and often produces generic “AI slop” responses, especially when users rely on it for exams or interviews.
- The company’s growth strategy leans heavily on aggressive marketing and media buzz (seven marketers vs. four engineers) to capture mind‑share, create daily usage habits, and lock users into the platform before next‑gen models like GPT‑5/6 arrive.
- The speaker contrasts Clo with Claude, noting that Claude’s strong ethical guardrails limit its utility for Clo’s “max‑utility” prompt design, highlighting a deliberate trade‑off between ethical safeguards and user convenience.
Sections
- Beyond Cheating: Cluey's AI Claim - The speaker dismisses the hype that Cluey (Clo) is a cheating tool, explains its “cheat at everything” manifesto, and argues the real product is a proactive AI‑agent platform with solid UX but only mid‑range, GPT‑4‑level intelligence.
- Proactive AI Agents vs ChatGPT - The speaker contends that integrated, proactive AI tools like Cluey outperform ChatGPT as productivity assistants and should be viewed as collaborative agents rather than cheating devices.
- Beyond Cheat Codes: AI Augmentation - The speaker stresses using AI as a thoughtful augmentation rather than a shortcut, emphasizing critical engagement and noting that any temporary edge disappears as the technology becomes universal.
Full Transcript
# Cheating the Cheaters: Clo’s AI Strategy **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TeiRJLyZ4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TeiRJLyZ4) **Duration:** 00:08:18 ## Summary - The speaker argues that Clo (also referred to as Cluey) has deliberately embraced a “cheating” narrative in its branding, but this is a strategic ploy rather than the core of the product. - Clo’s real value lies in its implementation of “level‑two proactive AI agents” and a standout user‑experience that integrates invisibly across the apps Gen Z and Gen Alpha use. - Despite flashy marketing, the underlying AI model is only average—comparable to a GPT‑4 level—and often produces generic “AI slop” responses, especially when users rely on it for exams or interviews. - The company’s growth strategy leans heavily on aggressive marketing and media buzz (seven marketers vs. four engineers) to capture mind‑share, create daily usage habits, and lock users into the platform before next‑gen models like GPT‑5/6 arrive. - The speaker contrasts Clo with Claude, noting that Claude’s strong ethical guardrails limit its utility for Clo’s “max‑utility” prompt design, highlighting a deliberate trade‑off between ethical safeguards and user convenience. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TeiRJLyZ4&t=0s) **Beyond Cheating: Cluey's AI Claim** - The speaker dismisses the hype that Cluey (Clo) is a cheating tool, explains its “cheat at everything” manifesto, and argues the real product is a proactive AI‑agent platform with solid UX but only mid‑range, GPT‑4‑level intelligence. - [00:03:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TeiRJLyZ4&t=186s) **Proactive AI Agents vs ChatGPT** - The speaker contends that integrated, proactive AI tools like Cluey outperform ChatGPT as productivity assistants and should be viewed as collaborative agents rather than cheating devices. - [00:06:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TeiRJLyZ4&t=394s) **Beyond Cheat Codes: AI Augmentation** - The speaker stresses using AI as a thoughtful augmentation rather than a shortcut, emphasizing critical engagement and noting that any temporary edge disappears as the technology becomes universal. ## Full Transcript
cheating, cheating, cheating. That's
what I've been hearing about Clo ever
since they raised $15 million from A16Z
just a few days ago. And this is not a
story about that raise. Nor is it a
story about Roy Lee, even though every
newspaper I've come across has talked
about Roy getting kicked out of Colombia
and how that's like a key part of the
founder narrative because he got kicked
out for building this tool that helps
him cheat. It's just I got to take my
hat off to these guys. Roy and team have
done a phenomenal job turning the entire
narrative about the company into
cheating. And it's not about that. It's
not I want you to just take off your
assumptions about what Clo is really
about for a second. It's not about
cheating. I know they want you to think
about that. They freaking have a
manifesto on their website that says
cheat at everything. I get that they
want you to think about that and they're
very good at it, but set it aside. I
would argue that they're cheating at
cheating. I'm going to explain why.
Cluey is really in the business of
introducing you to level two proactive
AI agents.
Cluey is one of the first that's
implemented that successfully. I'm super
impressed with their UX. I am not
impressed with their AI model. I think
their AI intelligence is mid. And to be
honest with you, having played around
with it and used it, it feels like chat
GPT40 level intelligence
and if you're going to use it and assume
the answers are right and give the
answers on the tests and give the
answers on the interviews and cheated
everything, I got news for you. It's
going to sound like AI slop. It is. Just
like the resumes that come in now are
all perfect will sound like AI slop. No,
it's not the model. What matters is the
UX and the way proactive AI agents are
implemented. And I strongly suspect Roy
and the team know that the model is not
as good as it could be and not as good
as it will be. And they're deliberately
using aggressive marketing. They have
seven marketers and four engineers.
aggressive aggressive marketing to jam
open the door on the distribution
channel to jam open the door on branding
to hold a space to hold mind share all
those newspapers writing about Roy
cheating and so on and so forth free
mind share earned clicks they're holding
mind share with their target market of
Gen Z and Gen Alpha they want to build
the habit of daily usage for a tool that
is across every app that you use if you
use Clo it sits as an invisible pane of
class across everything. If they build
the sticky habit, you will never leave.
So, they're ready when chat GPT5 comes
along. They're ready when chat GPT6
comes along. I would say Claude here,
but Claude is too ethical to work with
Cluey. In fact, one of the really
interesting things when I analyzed the
prompt for Cloy is that Clo maximizes
utility to the user in their prompt and
Claude has strong ethical guard rails.
And I think that's fascinating. I talk
about that a little bit in the uh
Substack that I wrote about this. I
think the thing I want you to take away,
it's not about the cheating, as I've
said, it's about the fact that proactive
AI agents are going to be everywhere.
And Cluey shows us what that's like.
It's not going to be the chatbot that
chat GPT is using. In fact, chat GPT
faces more of an interesting competitive
risk from Cluey than Cluey does from
chat GPT. Because if you start using
Clad GPT feels like P. It doesn't feel
like the place where the value is. I I
saw it and I felt it when I was using
Cluey. I used Cluey to watch a YouTube
video with me and I talked to Cluey
about the YouTube video about a
technical topic. Yeah, the intelligence
wasn't in incredible, but it was good
enough to get me moving forward. I
talked to Cluey about a web design
problem I was having, figuring out CSS
stylesheets. And I was working with
Claude Code and I was working with 03.
and Cluey was helping me go back and
forth and sort out what was going on.
And Cle was writing suggested code to
help illustrate the problem based on
what it actually saw on my screen. This
is not a cheating tool. This is an
agentic proactive tool that layers
across all of your apps. But it's
brilliant. It's brilliant to categorize
it as a cheating tool because that's one
word that is high impact, that is
emotional, that divides generations,
that sort of taps into this sense of of
we deserve this and we're not going to
get it that I hear from so many of my
friends and colleagues who are Gen Z.
And so I and that's not me talking like
I I get it, right? But
the marketing is designed to hit that
button emotionally as as a marketer who
has sat in the marketing chair. That's
extremely deliberate and Roy is a little
bit honest about that in some of his
interviews. So if you're going to talk
about Cloy, you need to separate the
marketing piece from the product piece.
You need to understand that what A16Z
really invested in is the product piece.
They invested in essentially smart
marketing, incredible distribution
channel targeted at people who are just
coming into peak buying power, who are
forming the first AI native generational
habits now. And said, "Yes, this is
going to be a tool of the future. This
is going to be a workflow tool for
everything." And then on top of that,
Clo shows up and cuts seven figure deals
with businesses. We've been talking
about people like Gen Z, Gen Alpha,
college students the whole time. Think
about it from a business perspective.
They're cutting seven figure deals
because customer success needs a clue to
have good conversations. Sales needs a
clue. Hey, let me share my screen and
cl's in the background. You never know
it. It hides. I can't show you a
screenshot of Cluey cuz it doesn't
screenshot. It's designed to be
invisible, but it's there to help you. I
do think they're on to something about
the future of AI there. And yes, the
cheating branding is controversial, but
we are going to see a lot more folks who
are focused on the utility of AI. And I
think that there's a little bit of a
generational shift here where people who
are younger, people who are deeper in
AI, I'm not younger, let's just be
honest, uh are going to feel more
comfortable with AI augmentation being
part of the normal human experience than
people who are less native on AI. And
this is like clearly is AI augmentation.
It just is. Now, you can do AI
augmentation and still be smart about
it. It doesn't have to sap your brain
power. You don't have to do like, "Hey,
this is the answer. I just have to give
up and say this is the answer." No. Like
I I one of the things I did when I was
like writing the post for Cluey is I
looked at how often I argue with AI.
It's about 70% of the time. 70% of AI
responses I'm like, "No, that's
incorrect." Or, "No, I disagree." Or
reframe that. Maybe I'm not the typical
user. I'm almost certainly not the
typical user. Let's just be honest. But
the
reality of using tools like Cloey to
essentially expand your ability to
understand your world and then apply a
critical lens to it is huge. And some
people will take it and they will just
take the answers at face value. And I
would tell you that in the next 6 12 18
months once everybody gets these whether
they're cluey or something else that is
no longer a cheat code. as a cheat code,
as a cheat code clearly is inflationary.
Say that five times fast. It's
inflationary because as soon as
everybody has it, it's no longer an
edge. Just as as soon as everyone had
chat GPT, the ability to write a resume
was no longer an edge. All of them are
perfect now. And so it's not the
cheating that's interesting in the big
scheme of things in 18 months. It's not
the cheating that's interesting. It's
the proactive AI revolution. It's the
ability to open up the distribution
window a little bit ahead of the model
capability. It's the ability to design a
proactive agent experience. It's the
ability to actually be in a position
from a UX perspective where you could
actually unseat Chad GPT. That's
fascinating. That's why I think the
Cluey story is worth diving into. So if
you want to learn more,
have a read of the article. Cheers.