Grammarly's Expert Review feature used real experts' identities without consent
Grammarly's Expert Review feature generated writing advice attributed to real journalists, authors and academics without their consent, including deceased individuals. The company justified the practice by citing publicly available work rather than seeking explicit permission, raising questions about identity rights and regulatory gaps.
What happened
Grammarly's AI-powered 'Expert Review' feature provides AI-generated writing advice in the names of real journalists, authors and academics without their consent. Writers select an expert from a list and receive AI-generated feedback modelled on that person's research and style.
The tool included deceased experts such as historian David Abulafia, who died in January 2026. Journalists including Nilay Patel and Casey Newton working at The New York Times, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and Gizmodo were named as experts without being contacted or giving permission.
The system provided broken links to 'source' material and used outdated job titles for the people it was mimicking. The AI's 'advice' was not verified to align with the experts' real-world opinions.
Reported impact
For the named experts, the incident represents the theft of their identities and their commodification. The feature associates them with a commercial product and specific advice they did not give, thereby damaging their reputations.
The issue is particularly acute for recently deceased individuals, whose estates had no opportunity to object.
Index analysis
Grammarly's parent company Superhuman says it relied on the fact that these experts' work is publicly available to justify using their names and styles, rather than obtaining explicit licenses or consent. The U.S. lacks clear federal rules on creating synthetic versions of real people, leaving a patchwork of state laws that companies appear to have exploited.
Governance controls
Neither Superhuman nor Grammaly appear to have obtained consent from the experts whose identities and work were used.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.