Grammarly’s “expert review” is missing actual experts

There’s a recently added feature in Grammarly that aims to improve users’ writing with the help of the world’s top writers and thinkers — and some tech journalists, too.

Launching in August 2025 as part of a broader set of AI-powered features, Expert Review appears in the sidebar of Grammarly’s main writing assistant, allowing users to submit review suggestions “from the perspective” of subject matter experts.

Wired noted that Grammarly positions these comments as if they were coming from famous authors, whether living or dead. In some cases, according to The Verge, it may appear to come from technology journalists at The Verge, Wired, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and other publications.

Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder: What about TechCrunch? I copied and pasted an early draft of this post into Grammarly hoping to see some advice from my TC colleagues, but instead I was asked to add moral context like Casey Newton, “leverage anecdote to align the reader” like Kara Swisher, and “ask the larger question of accountability” like Timnit Gebru.

Which was somewhat disappointing: Yes, this feature seems a bit ill-considered and ill-advised, but… if All those other pubs will be mentioned, so what are we doing wrong?

Anyway, to state the obvious, none of these figures appear to be involved in expert reviews or to have given permission for Grammarly to use their names. Alex Gay, vice president of product and corporate marketing at Grammarly’s parent company Superhuman, told The Verge that these experts were mentioned “because their published work is publicly available and widely cited.”

In the user guide for this feature, Grammarly says: “References to experts in Expert Review are for informational purposes only and do not indicate any affiliation with Grammarly or endorsement of these individuals or entities.”

Which is reasonably obvious, I think. But it raises the question: In what sense does Grammarly actually offer “expert review”? Perhaps nothing at all, as historian C.E. “These are not expert reviews, because there are no ‘experts’ involved in producing them,” Aubin told Wired.