Grammarly pulls AI author-impersonation tool after backlash 2 days ago Share Save James W Kelly Technology reporter Share Save Getty Images Writing tool Grammarly has disabled an AI feature which mimicked personas of prominent writers, including Stephen King and scientist Carl Sagan, following a backlash from people impersonated. The Expert Review function, which offered writing feedback "inspired by" the styles of famous authors and academics, was taken down this week by Superhuman, the tech firm which runs Grammarly. The feature was met with resistance, including a multi-million dollar lawsuit, from writers who found their names and reputations used as "AI personas" without their consent. Shishir Mehrotra, the firm's chief executive, apologised on LinkedIn, acknowledging the tool had "misrepresented" the voices of experts. Investigative journalist Julia Angwin, a New York Times contributing opinion writer, is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed against Superhuman and Grammarly in the Southern District of New York. Angwin told the BBC she was "stunned" to find her professional identity being marketed as a commercial product. "I had thought of deepfakes as something that happens to celebrities, mostly around images," she said. "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 stealable." The AI agent offered users advice in Angwin's name The legal filing alleges that the tech firm misappropriated the identities of "hundreds" of writers to drive profits for its paid subscription service. According to Angwin's lawyer, Peter Romer-Friedman, the case has already seen significant momentum. "We've heard from over 40 people in the last 24 hours since we filed the suit," he said, describing the company's actions as a "brazen violation of the law." The lawsuit argues it is unlawful to use names for commercial purposes without consent and seeks to stop the platform from attributing advice to experts that they "never gave." 'Slopperganger' While the filing states that damages exceed $5m (£3.7m), Romer-Friedman noted that this is a minimum jurisdictional requirement and the true figure will be calculated based on the firm's earnings from the tool. For Angwin, the quality of the AI's output added insult to injury, describing the imitation as a "slopperganger" - a reference to content described on social media as "AI slop". "The edits were not good. The ones that they were attributing to me... were making the sentences worse, more complex," she said. "The idea that my name would be in there giving people terrible advice is actually really appalling." Getty Images Tech journalist Julia Angwin is taking Superhuman to court over the persona agents Grammarly was founded in 2009 as a writing-review tool and began integrating a suite of generative-AI tools in August 2025. Part of thi
Originally reported by BBC Technology. Published on ABN12.