Author sues Grammarly for turning her and other authors into “AI editors” without their consent

Grammarly released a controversial feature last week that uses artificial intelligence to simulate editorial comments, making it look like you’re taking criticism from novelist Stephen King, late scientist Carl Sagan, or tech journalist Kara Swisher. But Grammarly did not get permission from the hundreds of experts it included in this feature, called “Expert Review,” to use their names.

One of the aggrieved writers, journalist Julia Angwin, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Superhuman, the parent company that owns Grammarly, arguing that the company violated the privacy and publicity rights of her and other writers she plagiarized. A class action lawsuit allows writers to join Angwin in her case.

“For decades I have honed my skills as a writer and editor, and I am devastated to discover that a technology company is selling a fraudulent version of my hard-earned expertise,” Angwin said in a statement.

The situation is somewhat ironic, as Angwin has spent her career leading investigations into the impact of technology companies on privacy. Other critics of this type of technology, such as renowned AI ethicist Timnit Gebru, are also included in Grammarly’s “Expert Review.”

The Expert Review feature, available only to subscribers who pay $144 per year, predictably fails to deliver on the promise of thoughtful feedback.

Casey Newton, founder and editor of the tech newsletter Platformer and another person impersonated by Grammarly, entered one of his articles into the tool and got feedback from Grammarly’s roundup of technology journalist Kara Swisher. Grammarly’s imitation of Swisher has generated such public “backlash” that it raises the question of why the company went through the process of using these writers’ images in the first place.

Here’s what Grammarly’s roundup told Kara Swisher: “Can you do a brief comparison of how everyday AI users versus AI skeptics express risk, and create an online readership that can be followed?”

Newton moved the message from bringing Kara Swisher’s artificial intelligence closer to a real human, Kara Swisher.

“You greedy information and identity thieves, you better brace yourself for me to go full on McConaughey,” Swisher texted Newton (referring to Grammarly). “And you’re disgusting too.”

Grammarly has since disabled its Expert Review feature, according to a LinkedIn post by Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra. While Mehrotra issued an apology, he continued to defend the idea of ​​the feature.

“Imagine your professor polishing your essay, your sales leader reshaping your customer pitch, a thoughtful critic challenging your arguments, or a leading expert elevating your proposal,” he wrote. “For experts, this is an opportunity to build the same lasting connection with users, as Grammarly did.”