Grammarly is facing its first major legal reckoning over its controversial "Expert Review" AI feature. Journalist Julia Angwin filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the writing assistant platform, alleging the company violated privacy and publicity rights by using her identity - and those of dozens of other journalists - to power AI-generated suggestions without permission. The complaint, filed against Grammarly's parent company Superhuman Platform, marks a critical test case for AI ethics in enterprise software as companies race to deploy features that blur the line between human expertise and machine-generated content.
Grammarly just learned that borrowing credibility without asking doesn't fly in court. The popular writing assistant platform is now defending a class-action lawsuit after journalist Julia Angwin discovered the company had been using her name and professional reputation to sell AI-generated writing advice to millions of users.
The complaint filed Wednesday targets Superhuman Platform Inc., Grammarly's parent company, for what Angwin's legal team describes as a brazen violation of privacy and publicity rights. The lawsuit centers on Grammarly's "Expert Review" feature, which presented AI-generated suggestions under the guise of expertise from real journalists, writers, and subject matter experts - none of whom had agreed to participate.
Angwin found out her identity was being exploited through Casey Newton's newsletter Platformer, where the journalist detailed his own discovery that Grammarly was using his name. Newton is among the experts The Verge uncovered in its investigation of the feature, which revealed dozens of professionals whose identities Grammarly appropriated without consent.
