tech
What Was Grammarly Thinking?
A short-lived AI tool promised to help users write like the greats—and a bunch of other random people, including me.
TL;DR
- Grammarly's "Expert Review" feature, which offered AI-generated writing advice mimicking famous authors, was quickly deactivated after facing backlash.
- The tool drew criticism because the featured experts had not consented to their work being used for uncompensated marketing.
- A class-action lawsuit was filed against Grammarly's owner, Superhuman Platform, by journalist Julia Angwin.
- The author experimented with the tool and found its suggestions to be "incredibly stupid and unhelpful," often adding wordy, fabricated, or irrelevant details.
- The incident raises questions about AI's impact on creative industries, the marketability of human skills, and the perceived value of writers.
- The article contrasts the past "learn to code" taunt with recent observations suggesting that AI might make labor markets "much worse for the math people than the word people."