Grammarly has decided to stop using its AI feature that created writing suggestions inspired by real experts without their permission.
The company says it will redesign the feature so experts can decide whether they want their work used by AI systems in the future.
The controversy started around Grammarly’s “Expert Review” feature. The tool used artificial intelligence to suggest edits that were described as being inspired by well-known writers and experts. Some of those experts included journalists and editors from major publications. However, many of them said they were never asked for permission and felt the tool misrepresented their voices.
After criticism from writers and media organizations, the company behind the feature announced that it has now disabled it. According to a statement shared with The Verge, the company admitted the feature missed the mark and apologized to those who were concerned.
The company said it plans to rethink how the feature works. In the future, experts will have more control over whether they participate and how their work is represented by AI tools.
Earlier, the company had created an option that allowed writers to email and opt out of the feature. But the backlash continued, with critics saying that the approach still allowed AI to use their writing styles without clear consent.
CEO Shishir Mehrotra also addressed the issue publicly. He explained that the feature was originally designed to help users discover insights and perspectives from influential voices. The AI system pulled information from publicly available content through large language models to generate writing suggestions.
However, he acknowledged that some experts believed their voices were being misrepresented. The company says the criticism has been taken seriously and will influence how it develops similar AI features going forward.
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The company now says its goal is to create a system where experts can choose to participate, control how their knowledge is used, and decide how they want to benefit from it.
