March 9, 2026
Seances in your spellcheck
Grammarly is offering ‘expert’ AI reviews from famous dead and living writers
Internet calls it “scummy” as lawyers see landmines and writers fear a ghostly lobotomy
TLDR: Grammarly’s new AI “Expert Review” lets users get feedback styled like famous living and dead writers, complete with a disclaimer they’re not involved. Commenters are roasting it as “scummy,” warning of legal risks and a creativity drain, and joking it’s basically a Ouija board for your drafts.
Grammarly just rolled out “Expert Review,” where you can get AI feedback in the style of famous writers and scholars—some living, some very much not. A tiny disclaimer says these people aren’t affiliated, but the internet lost it anyway. One commenter blasted it as “scummy” branding theater, while others wondered why the company needs celebrity names at all if it’s just software dressing up as a ghostwriter. The company’s CEO teased “something extraordinary under the hood,” after a rebrand to Superhuman, but the crowd isn’t buying the séance vibes.
The hottest thread: legal danger. Commenters flagged potential landmines—publicity rights, defamation, copyright—and called the legality of training on an author’s work “murky” amid ongoing AI lawsuits. Creators piled on with existential dread: one user said it’s just an LLM (a text-predicting AI) in a “professional skin,” warning that letting an AI “expert” set your tone could “lobotomize” your voice. Another predicted an ouroboros of bots grading bots—AI reviewing AI until humans are optional.
Philosophers chimed in with a spicy take: AI can mimic the output of a pro, not the process behind it. Meanwhile, jokesters dubbed it “Ouija for drafts” and “Weekend at Bernie’s: Editor’s Cut,” imagining a virtual Carl Sagan whispering, “billions and billions of commas” while Stephen King murders your adverbs.
Key Points
- •Grammarly has expanded its platform with multiple generative AI features, including a chatbot, paraphraser, humanizer, AI grader, and LLM phrase-flagging tools.
- •A new “Expert Review” feature simulates feedback from named authors and academics, including deceased figures, accompanied by a non-affiliation disclaimer.
- •The support page lists living and deceased figures such as Stephen King, Neil deGrasse Tyson, William Zinsser, and Carl Sagan as selectable virtual reviewers.
- •The article notes that the legality of training AI agents on these individuals’ works is unclear and intertwined with ongoing copyright litigation.
- •In October, CEO Shishir Mehrotra announced a company rebrand to Superhuman, while keeping the AI writing partner named Grammarly.