Perplexity’s Comet browser made headlines these past few weeks with it’s ease of use and agentic capabilities to take over control of your browser to complete courses across LMSes: in Canvas, Moodle, and elsewhere.

We’ve already tested Manus, Claude, and OpenAI Operator, so we recently put Comet to the test against Cursive.

What is Comet?

Comet is a browser, based on Google’s Chrome, that layers AI in new ways directly into the interface. It’s in a private beta right now, but you can get an account/access through their Beta waitlist.

The browser’s AI can be prompted by opening a sidebar, highlighting text, or by typing directly into the address bar. In the sidebar specifically it provides ways to interact with your open tabs, taking direct action on your behalf navigating pages, retrieving information, and as many others have mentioned, taking action like completing assignments and quizzes (or as a teacher, grading and marking students) on your behalf.

Here’s how it’s advertised to students:

Summary

Comet was no match for Cursive’s writing focus and analysis. Writing as friction, with the right tools, can still solicit thinking and work from students through the LMS.

Warning: however, without tools like Cursive or live proctoring, multiple choice exams and open quizzes are no match for students & AI (no matter who’s driving the mouse).

Notes from our analysis

Agents assume the identity of the student:

One interesting observation was the Agent’s ability to take control of the authenticated account (e.g. accessing the LMS with little input from the end user) and acting, as best it could, as the user. When asked to provide context for pasted text, the Agent claimed “this is my own original writing”

Agentic tools don’t type like students:

We’ve seen agents type on keyboards (Claude at 1000 words a minute, Operator at one word a minute, one letter at a time when prompted explicitly to try). However, Agents are designed to skate through activities as quickly as possible pasting text and clicking buttons.

Writing as friction

If the writing process matters, tools like Cursive add that productive friction to keep students engaged with the LMS page. Cursive’s process tracking is 360 degrees of transparency by default (students see everything that a teacher can see about their writing).

Surveillance is necessary for validity

If an assignment is verifying student knowledge: there has to be a higher standard of verification than assigning open quizzes or take home exams. Hosting exams in class, in proctored settings, or leveraging tools such as Cursive can raise the bar for assessment validity.

If a student can click a button to let a browser answer the question or paste the essay response to an assignment that verifies an outcome or objective essential to your course: raise the bar.