Grammarly has disabled a controversial AI feature that imitated the style of prominent writers and academics, and is facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit from those whose identities were used without consent.
The feature, called Expert Review, used generative AI to produce feedback supposedly inspired by writers including the novelist Stephen King, the astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the late scientist Carl Sagan.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in the southern district of New York against Superhuman, Grammarly’s parent company. The lawsuit argues that using a person’s name for commercial gain without permission is unlawful, and argues that damages due across the plaintiff class are in excess of $5m (£3.7m).
Since Grammarly’s feature has come to public attention, a number of writers have spoken out about being included.
“[Grammarly] curated a list of real people, gave its models free rein to hallucinate plausible-sounding advice on their behalf, and put it all behind a subscription,” wrote tech journalist Casey Newton, who was among those featured in the software. “That’s a deliberate choice to monetise the identities of real people without involving them, and it sucks.”
Vanessa Heggie, an associate professor at the University of Birmingham, posted on LinkedIn about how fellow academic David Abulafia, who died in January, was included too, describing it as “obscene”.
Investigative journalist Julia Angwin, who appeared in the software, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I had thought of deepfakes as something that happens to celebrities, mostly around images,” Angwin told the BBC. “Editing is a skill … it’s my livelihood, but it’s not something I’ve ever thought about anyone trying to steal from me before. I didn’t even think it was steal-able.”
Angwin’s lawyer, Peter Romer-Friedman, told the BBC the case had already generated interest from writers. “We’ve heard from over 40 people in the last 24 hours since we filed the suit,” he said.
Grammarly was launched in 2009 as a spelling and grammar check tool, but began adding a range of generative AI features last year, including Expert Review. “Expert Review agent offers subject-matter expertise and personalised, topic-specific feedback to elevate writing that meets rigorous academic or professional standards tailored to the user’s field,” Grammarly wrote in a blog post announcing the feature.
Superhuman’s chief executive, Shishir Mehrotra, apologised in a LinkedIn post. “Over the past week, we received valid critical feedback from experts who are concerned that the agent misrepresented their voices,” he wrote. “We hear the feedback and recognise we fell short on this. I want to apologise and acknowledge that we’ll rethink our approach going forward.”
In response to the lawsuit, Mehrotra told the BBC: “We announced that Expert Review was being taken down for a redesign before the claim was filed, and in its short lifespan it had very little usage. We are sorry, and we will rethink our approach going forward.”
Despite this, he said that the legal claims were “without merit” and Superhuman will “strongly defend against them”.
