So when the writing assistant software Grammarly launched a feature called “Expert Review” — allowing users to receive editing feedback ventriloquised through living journalists, celebrated authors and award-winning academics including astronomer Carl Sagan, who died in 1996 and therefore could not be reached for comment — it inevitably courted the limelight. As well as a US$5 million ($6.4 million) class-action lawsuit.
A digital aid drew the ire of the literary world after introducing a controversial feature that impersonates writers without their permission. Now they are demanding the last word.
Silicon Valley has always had a complicated relationship with writers. It thrives on their work, ideas, credibility and authority — just not the part where anyone thinks to ask first.
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