Grammarly disables AI feature after backlash over using real names without consent

Grammarly disables AI feature that used real names without consent

Grammarly has shut off Expert Review, the AI feature that was presenting edits as “inspired by” real writers and editors who never agreed to be part of it. Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, told The Verge it has disabled the feature and will rethink it so experts have real control over whether they are represented at all. 

The feature that was supposed to make writing feel smarter lasted one week in the spotlight before the company had to pull it back.

The change is sharp because Superhuman was saying something else just a day earlier. Its first move was to offer an opt-out email address for people who wanted their names removed. Now it is apologizing instead. Product executive Ailian Gan said the company “missed the mark.” CEO Shishir Mehrotra said the future version should work differently, with experts choosing to take part and deciding how their work is used. 

You can see why this landed badly. Expert Review was not some quiet backend tool. Grammarly’s own support page described a feature that read your draft, matched it with relevant experts, and then showed suggestions through those names inside the document. Click the name, read the note, drop the rewrite into your draft. 

A grammar tool offering better phrasing is one thing. A grammar tool making it feel like a real editor or professor has stepped into your doc is another.

That gap is what broke the feature. The Verge reported that real journalists were included without permission. While another report found the same system surfacing dead writers and scholars as review personas. Once that became the story, the usual defense about public information and widely cited work stopped sounding persuasive. 

Grammarly was not just borrowing from published work. It was borrowing the people attached to it. Pulling the feature is the clearest sign yet that the company now understands those are not the same thing.