For several months, Grammarly has reportedly been utilizing the identities of real individuals, including journalists, for its “Expert Review” AI suggestions without obtaining consent. This has led to a lawsuit from journalist Julia Angwin, as initially reported by Wired. Angwin’s class-action lawsuit claims that Grammarly violated the privacy and publicity rights of these “experts” by unlawfully using their identities for commercial purposes without permission.

Julia Angwin discovered her identity was being used after Casey Newton, another journalist whose name appeared in Grammarly’s AI suggestions, alerted her. The issue was further highlighted during a test by The Verge, which found that several of its current staff, including editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, were also being used in Grammarly’s AI-generated recommendations.

Grammarly’s CEO, Shishir Mehrotra, acknowledged the situation, stating, “The agent was designed to help users discover influential perspectives and scholarship relevant to their work, while also providing meaningful ways for experts to build deeper relationships with their fans. We hear the feedback and recognize we fell short on this. I want to apologize and acknowledge that we’ll rethink our approach going forward.”