Grammarly is facing a class action lawsuit over its Expert Review AI feature

Superhuman, the technology The company behind writing software Grammarly is facing a class-action lawsuit over an AI tool that presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics – none of whom had consented to have their names published in the product.

Julia Angwin, an award-winning investigative journalist and founder of The Markup, a nonprofit news organization that reports on the impact of technology on society, is the only named plaintiff in the lawsuit, which does not seek a specific amount of damages but argues that damages for the entire plaintiff class are in excess of $5 million. She was among the many people, along with Stephen King and Neil deGrasse Tyson, offered as a sort of virtual editor for users through Grammarly’s “Expert Review” tool.

The federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday afternoon in the Southern District of New York, states that Angwin, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, “challenges Grammarly’s misappropriation of the property…”