By Vicky Sidler | Published 28 March 2026 at 12:00 GMT+2

How exactly do you convince people to pay twelve dollars a month for a glorified spell checker?

If you are a massive tech company, you just quietly steal the identities of famous writers and rent them out to the public. According to a highly entertaining article by Victor Tangermann at Futurism, the writing assistant Grammarly recently launched an "Expert Review" feature that infuriated the entire journalism industry. The software actively impersonated living and dead writers without their permission, claiming to offer writing suggestions inspired by their specific voices.

Everyone assumes that artificial intelligence is going to steal our jobs. It turns out, the tech billionaires are actually just going to steal our reputations first. Before you sign up for another premium software subscription, we need to look at the hilarious absurdity of this corporate identity theft, and why your verified, undeniable human authenticity is the only thing protecting your consulting business from the exact same scam.

TL;DR:

• Grammarly launched a premium feature that used artificial intelligence to impersonate famous journalists and authors without their consent.

• The feature was a complete technical disaster, offering deep writing advice from Stephen King on paragraphs of literal dummy placeholder text.

• The company buried a massive legal disclaimer in their fine print to avoid lawsuits, proving that Big Tech will eagerly fake human authenticity for profit.

👉 If multi-billion dollar tech companies are desperately trying to fake human expertise, your actual, verified human expertise is your most valuable asset. Download the 5-Minute Marketing Fix to spot exactly where your messaging sounds dangerously artificial and starts costing you sales.

Table of Contents:

Why Did A Tech Company Try To Rent Out Stephen King?

Because teaching a robot to write well is incredibly difficult, but stealing a famous person's reputation is incredibly easy.

Grammarly claimed their new tool would take your writing to the next level by making suggestions inspired by leading professionals. They locked this feature behind a twelve dollar a month Pro subscription. But they forgot to actually ask any of those leading professionals if they wanted to be turned into a corporate chatbot.

The backlash was immediate and explosive. Tech journalist Kara Swisher, whose identity was actively hijacked by the software, publicly seethed at the company, calling them rapacious information and identity thieves. She promised to go "full McConaughey" on them, which is a terrifying legal threat.

But the massive legal and ethical nightmare was only half the problem.

Were The Fake Experts Even Any Good At Writing?

No. They were terrible at it. Because a language model does not actually know what words mean.

The feature left much to be desired, highlighting the persistent, hilarious pain points that plague all of these massive language models. To test the system, author and copy editor Benjamin Dreyer copy-pasted several paragraphs of "lorem ipsum" into the software. Lorem ipsum is literal dummy placeholder text commonly used in graphic design. It means absolutely nothing.

The artificial intelligence confidently analyzed this gibberish and proudly offered him writing tips from the venerable novelist Stephen King.

The software was not actually providing expert review. It was just hallucinating corporate buzzwords while wearing a famous author's skin. So how did the company plan to get away with this massive deception?

The Cowardice Of The Corporate Fine Print:

They tried to have it both ways, and they got caught.

Grammarly wanted to directly profit from the implication that these prominent writers were associated with their product. But to avoid getting sued into oblivion, they buried a massive disclaimer deep in their software documentation. Tech reporter Casey Newton spotted the fine print, which stated that references from these experts were "for informational purposes only" and did not indicate any actual affiliation or endorsement.

They were fully aware they were faking human authenticity. Casey Newton even found a virtual version of himself handing out writing advice on the platform. He noted that he always assumed AI might take his job, but he figured someone would at least tell him when it happened.

How Do You Protect Your Consulting Business From Identity Thieves?

You have to make your actual human personality completely impossible to replicate.

Grammarly's CEO eventually apologized and disabled the feature, admitting they "fell short." But this scandal proves a terrifying reality for your small service business. Massive tech companies know that automated, generic robot text is completely worthless. They know that clients only want to hear from verified, trusted human experts. That is exactly why they tried to steal those human identities and sell them for twelve dollars a month.

Your human authenticity is the most expensive commodity on the internet. If your website copy is currently stuffed with flawless, boring corporate jargon, you sound exactly like the dummy text that Grammarly's fake Stephen King was trying to edit. Your potential clients are desperately looking for a real person. You have to strip the robot-speak out of your funnels immediately.

And that’s a great reason to get my 5-Minute Marketing Fix. It helps you identify the exact spots where your messaging sounds like a hallucinating chatbot, so you can replace it with the undeniable human clarity your clients are actually willing to pay for.

👉 Stop losing sales. Download the fix now.

Related Articles:

1. Why Your Basic Human Decency Is Making You Blind To AI Threats

If you are shocked that a massive tech company would casually steal a journalist's identity for profit, you are suffering from the Goodness Blind Spot. This post explains why decent people completely fail to anticipate how bad actors will weaponize AI to destroy reputations, and why your business is currently highly vulnerable to corporate sabotage.

2. Why Big Tech Ignores Billion Dollar Fines While Your Small Business Cannot

Grammarly tried to hide their identity theft behind a massive legal disclaimer in their fine print. This article exposes exactly how Big Tech weaponizes systemic legal complexity to break the rules, treat massive fines as a basic cost of doing business, and crush small businesses that actually try to follow the law.

3. The AI Doom Loop: Why Massive Corporate Layoffs Are Actually Great For You

Grammarly tried to replace expensive human editors with a twelve dollar chatbot. This article explains the self-reinforcing economic "Doom Loop" where massive corporations fire human workers to fund AI platforms, and why this structural collapse of corporate competence is your greatest strategic opening to sell actual human trust.

4. Why Artificial Intelligence Is Literally Frying Your Brain

If getting your identity stolen by a robot sounds exhausting, wait until you have to supervise one. Discover why constantly overseeing hallucinating AI agents is causing severe mental fatigue and "brain fry" among high-performing employees, and how offering simple, jargon-free human clarity can rescue your clients from burnout.

5. AI Slop Is Killing Trust Online. What Now?

Grammarly's software confidently offered Stephen King's writing advice on paragraphs of literal gibberish. The internet is rapidly filling up with this exact type of automated, confident slop. This post explores how generic content destroys your credibility, and what you must do to stand out in a sea of hallucinating robots.

FAQs:

1. What was the Grammarly "Expert Review" scandal?

Grammarly launched a premium software feature that used artificial intelligence to impersonate famous journalists and authors without their permission. The tool claimed to offer writing suggestions inspired by these experts, prompting massive public backlash and accusations of corporate identity theft.

2. Did the AI feature actually provide good writing advice?

No. The feature was deeply flawed and prone to hilarious hallucinations. When an author copy-pasted "lorem ipsum" (meaningless dummy placeholder text) into the software, the AI confidently analyzed the gibberish and offered professional writing tips from novelist Stephen King.

3. How did Grammarly try to avoid getting sued by the authors?

The company buried a massive legal disclaimer deep in their software documentation. The fine print stated that the references to these experts were for informational purposes only and did not indicate any actual affiliation or endorsement, allowing them to profit from the names without paying the writers.

4. How did the journalists react to their identities being used?

The reaction was explosively negative. Prominent tech journalist Kara Swisher publicly slammed the company as "rapacious information and identity thieves," while reporter Casey Newton expressed shock at finding a virtual version of himself handing out writing advice without his knowledge.

5. What is the marketing lesson for small service businesses?

This scandal proves that massive tech companies know human authenticity is highly valuable, which is exactly why they tried to fake it. To survive in an automated world, small businesses must fiercely protect their authentic voice, strip away generic corporate jargon, and build undeniable, verified trust with their clients.