Editorial illustration for Journalist Julia Angwin sues Grammarly over alleged identity‑stealing AI
Grammarly Sued: Journalist Fights AI Identity Theft
Journalist Julia Angwin sues Grammarly over alleged identity‑stealing AI
Journalist Julia Angwin didn’t ask to be a face of Grammarly’s AI. She didn’t consent, didn’t get paid, and didn’t even know until another journalist tipped her off. Now she’s suing.
The class-action lawsuit targets Grammarly’s “Expert Review” feature, which pilfers real identities, names, bios, professional reputations, to lend false credibility to AI-generated edits. Casey Newton, a fellow “expert” unwittingly drafted into the system, alerted her. The Verge’s own testing found multiple staffers, including editor in chief Nilay Patel, attached to suggestions they never wrote.
Superhuman, which launched an email inbox using the same feature, scrambled to disable it Wednesday. The question isn’t just about one lawsuit. It’s about who owns your name when AI decides it wants a disguise.
One of Grammarly's 'experts' is suing the company over its identity-stealing AI feature Journalist Julia Angwin has filed a class-action lawsuit after learning she was included in Grammarly's 'Expert Review' AI editing feature. Journalist Julia Angwin has filed a class-action lawsuit after learning she was included in Grammarly's 'Expert Review' AI editing feature. Angwin says she found out her identity was used by way of Casey Newton, who is also one of the experts that The Verge uncovered being used by Grammarly when we tested the feature this week.
Several current Verge staff members popped up attached to Grammarly's AI-generated suggestions, too, including editor in chief Nilay Patel. Superhuman announced earlier Wednesday that it's disabling the feature, after initially launching an email inbox earlier this week where writers and academics could ask to opt out.
Julia Angwin’s lawsuit isn’t just about one journalist’s name being used without consent. It’s a flashpoint. Grammarly built a feature that plunders professional reputations to sell credibility, and called it an “expert review.” The irony is damning: a tool pitched to sharpen writing cannot even respect the boundaries of authorship.
When Superhuman rushes to disable the same feature, you see the fault line. Companies will keep racing to normalize identity theft as a service until someone forces them to stop. Angwin just drew the line.
Now the courts will decide whether your name belongs to you, or to the nearest AI eager to borrow it.
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Common Questions Answered
What specific legal action has Julia Angwin taken against Grammarly?
Julia Angwin has filed a class-action lawsuit against Grammarly over its 'Expert Review' AI feature. The lawsuit alleges that Grammarly used her identity and bylines without consent to generate AI-powered editing suggestions, potentially breaching her privacy and publicity rights.
How did Angwin discover her identity was being used by Grammarly's AI tool?
Angwin found out about her identity being used in Grammarly's 'Expert Review' tool through journalist Casey Newton, who was also identified as one of the 'experts' in the feature. The tool pulls publicly available writings to train a model that claims to offer expert-level editing suggestions.
What are the key legal claims in Angwin's lawsuit against Grammarly?
The lawsuit claims that Grammarly (referred to as 'Superhuman' in the filing) breached privacy and publicity rights by using journalists' identities for commercial purposes without their consent. The legal action hinges on whether existing statutes cover the use of personal identities in AI-generated content.
