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Grammarly Disables ‘Expert Review’ After Backlash, Class Action Over Using Real Names

A federal lawsuit by journalist Julia Angwin claims the tool misappropriated identities for profit.

Overview

  • Superhuman, Grammarly’s owner, apologized and shut off the Expert Review feature, pledging a redesign that gives named experts control over whether and how they are represented.
  • The tool framed AI-generated edits as coming from real journalists, authors, and academics — including deceased figures — without securing their permission.
  • A class-action complaint filed in the Southern District of New York by Julia Angwin alleges unlawful commercial use of writers’ names and identities.
  • Before disabling the feature, the company offered a criticized email opt-out and relied on a buried disclaimer stating the attributions were informational only.
  • Testing by reporters and affected individuals found the advice could be inaccurate or off‑voice, and the agent drew on third‑party LLMs as part of Grammarly’s paid Pro offering.