Lazy undergrads rejoice. A new AI “homework agent” can supposedly log into your account on the learning management system Canvas and automatically complete your homework and assignments for you — streamlining the laborious, outdated process of having to copy-paste answers from ChatGPT.
Called “Einstein,” the AI can even participate in discussions, reply to your peers, write essays, and take notes on recorded lectures on your behalf, its maker Companion.AI claims on its website.
“Einstein has a full virtual computer with a browser — anything you can do, he can do,” the site reads, next to the smiling visage of the famed physicist Albert Einstein. “He logs into Canvas every day, watches lectures, reads essays, writes papers, participates in discussions, and submits your homework — automatically.”
Companion’s founder, Advait Paliwal, described the Einstein AI tool in a tweet as “OpenClaw as a student,” referring to the viral open source AI agent that “actually does things.” Paliwal also worked on YouLearn AI, an “AI tutor” for students that claims to have over a million users.
It’s unclear if the company’s boasts hold water. The AI industry is fraught with half-baked vibe-coded projects and deceptive claims. The AI’s work may be shoddy or obvious, opening up users to disciplinary action. What may appear to be autonomous may actually be heavily assisted by a bedrock of human labor.
That said, it’s alarming that the tool exists at all, as it explicitly promises to autonomously cheat on assignments without ever mentioning the word. Once given permission, a prospective customer theoretically won’t have to lift a finger: Companion claims that Einstein will work while you sleep, pre-empting you having to be even cognizant of an assignment’s existence.
“Set him up and forget about it. Einstein checks for new assignments and knocks them out before the deadline,” Companion says.
The site can read like a parody, as when its FAQ features the daring question: “What if I want to do an assignment myself?” And our bit at the beginning about no longer having to copy-paste your answers from ChatGPT? That wasn’t us being facetious. “Forget switching between ChatGPT and your [learning management software],” the company boasts. “Einstein reads the assignment, solves it, and submits it directly.”
Word of the AI agent sparked backlash on social media, especially among educators, who have long been fighting an uphill battle against the flood of cheating enabled by AI chatbots. “Get me off this rock,” a user wrote on the r/Professor subreddit.
Others warned this was just the tip of the iceberg. “What many don’t yet grasp is just how quickly all of these things — the good, the bad, and the ugly — are coming down the line,” Brendan Bartanen, an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia, wrote on Bluesky. “AI models have reached capability that allows for basically anyone with an internet connection to spin up functioning apps using just ideas expressed in natural language.”
Another risk some noted was that allowing a third-party AI tool to access a Canvas account could violate an institution’s acceptable use policy.
After we originally published this story, Paliwal got back to us to address the accusations that Einstein was enabling cheating by asserting that students are already using ChatGPT and services like Chegg and Course Hero to help with their assignments.
He also described AI’s growing role in education as an inevitable reality. “The outrage is understandable but misplaced,” Paliwal said. “The education system will need to adapt to AI the same way it adapted to calculators, the internet, and Google.”
“We’ve also gotten threats from educators to take it down or we won’t ‘sleep well’ and how we’re causing the downfall of society,” Paliwal claimed.
The Einstein tool comes as the AI industry’s obsession over building autonomous AI agents has seen some companies try make a name for themselves by unashamedly bragging that their tools will help you con your way through your professional and academic life. A startup launched by two Columbia University dropouts called Cluely gloats that its AI will help you “cheat on everything” and make you come across smarter in virtual meetings. Teachers and professors are hopeless to keep up with all the latest ways AI can be used for cheating, while the schools and institutions they work for often form partnerships with big tech companies to push AI tools on their students.
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