Grammarly Introduces ‘Expert’ AI Evaluations from Beloved Authors—Living or Deceased

Do you remember those nostalgic days of being the favorite in class? Ever wish you could receive feedback from that one college professor you adored? Yearn for an unwavering authority figure to fine-tune your every word and punctuation? Well, here’s some exciting news: A particular software company has developed a means to replicate feedback not only from contemporary bestselling authors and renowned academics but also from individuals who passed away decades ago—and it appears they didn’t bother to seek permission from anyone.

Initially used solely for grammar and spelling checks, the writing assistant Grammarly has rolled out an array of generative AI features in recent years. In October, CEO Shishir Mehrotra declared that the company would be rebranding itself as Superhuman to showcase a new suite of AI-driven tools. Nonetheless, the AI writing “partner” retains the name Grammarly. “When technology is ubiquitous, it can start to feel mundane,” Mehrotra noted in his press announcement. “Usually, that signals something remarkable is occurring beneath the surface.”

The upgraded Grammarly platform now provides an AI solution for every conceivable requirement—and even some you might not have expected. There’s a chatbot to address specific questions while you draft, a “paraphraser” that offers stylistic alterations, a “humanizer” that refines text to match a chosen voice, an AI evaluator that estimates how your document would fare as college coursework, and even features for identifying and modifying phrases typically generated by large language models. (Indeed, you’re leveraging AI for everything, but you don’t want it to read that way.)

Most controversially, Grammarly has introduced an “expert review” feature that provides a list of actual academics and authors offering feedback on your text, rather than generic critiques from a faceless LLM. It’s important to note: These individuals aren’t involved in the process. As a disclaimer states: “References to experts in this product are for informational purposes only and do not indicate any association with Grammarly or endorsement by those individuals or organizations.”

According to their support page, Grammarly users can request guidance from virtual versions of contemporary writers and scholars like Stephen King and Neil deGrasse Tyson (both of whom did not respond to requests for comment) as well as deceased figures such as editor William Zinsser and astronomer Carl Sagan. It’s likely these various AI agents are modeled on the works of the individuals they emulate, yet the legality of this content sourcing remains unclear, sparking numerous, many copyright disputes.

“Our Expert Review agent analyzes the writing a user is working on—whether it’s a marketing brief or a student project about biodiversity—and utilizes our foundational LLM to present expert content that can assist the author in shaping their document,” explains Jen Dakin, senior communications manager at Superhuman. “The recommended experts are determined by the nature of the writing being assessed. The Expert Review agent does not assert endorsement or direct collaboration from those experts; it provides suggestions inspired by their works and directs users to influential voices whose scholarship they can delve into further.”

While someone like King may view the rise of AI as inevitable, and it appears there’s little left to safeguard Zinsser’s 1976 guide On Writing Well from tech giants, what about the numerous other luminaries who wish to protect their creations from being distilled into algorithms? Vanessa Heggie, an associate professor in the history of science and medicine at the University of Birmingham, recently took to LinkedIn to highlight a particularly troubling instance of how this feature operates, accusing Superhuman of “creating little LLMs” based on the “scraped work” of both the living and the deceased, exploiting “their names and reputations.” A screenshot she shared displayed an AI agent modeled on David Abulafia, an English historian of the medieval and Renaissance eras who passed away in January. “Obscene,” Heggie commented.