NEW YORK, United States — Writing software company Grammarly has disabled an artificial intelligence feature that mimicked the writing personas of prominent authors and journalists after strong backlash and a lawsuit over the use of their identities without consent.
The controversial “Expert Review” function offered users editing suggestions supposedly inspired by the styles of famous writers and academics, including Stephen King and Carl Sagan.
However, the tool faced swift criticism from writers whose names and reputations were used to create the AI personas without their permission.
The feature was removed this week by Superhuman, the technology firm operating Grammarly’s platform.
Shishir Mehrotra, chief executive of Superhuman, acknowledged the criticism and apologised publicly, saying the tool had “misrepresented” the voices of experts.
“Over the past week, we received valid critical feedback from experts who are concerned that the agent misrepresented their voices,” Mehrotra wrote in a statement shared on LinkedIn.
“This kind of scrutiny improves our products, and we take it seriously,” he added.
The backlash intensified after Julia Angwin, an investigative journalist whose persona was included in the feature, filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“I’m suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me — and many other writers and journalists — without consent,” she wrote on social media.
According to the lawsuit, Grammarly and its parent company are accused of misappropriating the identities of hundreds of journalists, authors, writers, and editors to market the AI feature.
The legal complaint argues that it is unlawful to use a person’s name or identity for commercial purposes without permission and seeks to stop the company from attributing advice to experts that they never provided.
The damages being sought exceed Sh646,000, according to reports.
Grammarly, founded in 2009, began expanding its services to include generative AI writing tools in August 2025, part of a broader push by technology companies to integrate artificial intelligence into everyday productivity software.
The Expert Review feature initially appeared as a writing feedback tool inspired by the works of influential voices, but critics argued it crossed the line into impersonation.
Wes Fenlon, a gaming journalist whose persona was also used by the platform, criticised the company’s earlier proposal allowing writers to opt out via email.
“Opt-out via email is a laughably inadequate recourse for selling a product that verges on impersonation and profits on unearned credibility,” Fenlon wrote.
In response to the criticism, Mehrotra said the AI system relied on publicly available information from third-party large language models to generate writing suggestions inspired by the published work of notable figures.
“We hear the feedback and recognise we fell short on this,” he said.
