{"id":204644,"date":"2025-10-11T04:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T04:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204644\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T04:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T04:39:07","slug":"perplexitys-31-year-old-ceo-horrified-after-getting-tagged-by-a-student-using-his-free-ai-browser-to-cheat-absolutely-dont-do-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204644\/","title":{"rendered":"Perplexity\u2019s 31-year-old CEO horrified after getting tagged by a student using his free AI browser to cheat: \u2018Absolutely don\u2019t do this\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Perplexity AI\u2019s Aravind Srinivas<\/a> announced in September that students could use the company\u2019s $200 Comet browser for free, the pitch was clear:<\/a> a study buddy that helps you \u201cfind answers faster than ever before.\u201d But just weeks later, Srinivas is having to remind students not to let that study buddy do all the work.<\/p>\n

The warning came after a post on X<\/a> showed a developer using Comet to complete an entire Coursera<\/a> assignment in seconds. In the 16-second clip, Comet breezes through what appears to be a 45-minute web design assignment with the prompt \u201cComplete the assignment.\u201d The user proudly tagged both Perplexity and Srinivas, writing, \u201cJust completed my Coursera course.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old CEO responded<\/a> to the video with just four words: \u201cAbsolutely don\u2019t do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Srinivas\u2019s terse public reprimand comes as AI seeps deeper into classrooms<\/a> and tech firms aggressively market their products to students under the banner of \u201clearning support.\u201d Perplexity\u2019s free student offer joins a wave of similar initiatives from companies like Google<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a>, and Anthropic<\/a>\u2014all touting their bots as tutors, study buddies, or productivity boosters.<\/p>\n

But educators say those tools are increasingly being used to bypass learning altogether<\/a>. Many students are simply using AI to generate essays, ace quizzes, or automate full courses, undermining the very skills those platforms claim to enhance.<\/p>\n

Comet, in particular, is well set up to do students\u2019 work for them\u2014it\u2019s not your average chatbot. Built by Perplexity as what it calls an \u201cagentic\u201d AI browser, it\u2019s designed to do more than just spit out text: It can interpret your instructions, take actions on your behalf, fill out forms, and navigate complex workflows. That level of autonomy enables Comet to churn through assignments in seconds, but it also introduces new risks when deployed.<\/p>\n

Security audits<\/a> from Brave and Guardio have flagged serious vulnerabilities. In some cases, Comet can execute hidden instructions embedded in web-page content\u2014essentially allowing \u201cprompt injection\u201d attacks that override its intended behavior. One especially alarming case, dubbed CometJacking<\/a> by researchers at LayerX, lets a crafted URL hijack the browser and cause it to exfiltrate private data like emails and calendar entries.<\/p>\n

In audits by Guardio, Comet was tricked<\/a> into making fraudulent purchases from fake sites\u2014completing entire checkout flows without human verification. It also mishandled phishing scenarios: When presented with malicious links disguised as legitimate requests, the AI processed them as valid tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, Comet\u2019s capabilities are precisely what make it so useful in academic cheating scenarios. It\u2019s designed to act, not just advise, which means that \u201cstudying support\u201d can shift into \u201cdoing the work for you.\u201d That shift is evident in the Coursera video, and it reframes most debates about AI in education: It\u2019s no longer just about content generation (essays or summaries), but about automation in form and function.\n<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Perplexity AI\u2019s Aravind Srinivas announced in September that students could use the company\u2019s $200 Comet browser for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,19040,353,13255,2555,113,2577,5045,5327,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-204644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-chatbot","14":"tag-cheating","15":"tag-colleges-and-universities","16":"tag-education","17":"tag-google","18":"tag-microsoft","19":"tag-perplexity","20":"tag-students","21":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}