Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me

Today, I’m talking with Shishir Mehrotra, the CEO of Superhuman, the company formerly known as Grammarly, which is still its flagship product. Back in August, Grammarly shipped a feature called Expert Review, which allowed you to get writing suggestions from AI-cloned “experts,” and recently, reporters at The Verge and other outlets discovered that those experts included me, among many others.

No one ever asked permission to use our names this way, and a lot of reporters were outraged by this. To Shishir’s credit, he did not cancel our interview and he came on and stuck it out. This conversation got tense at times, and it’s clear we disagree about how extractive AI feels for people. There’s a lot in this one, and I’m excited to hear what you think.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

Why I’m suing Grammarly | New York Times

Grammarly will stop using identities without permission | The Verge

Grammarly to keep using writer identities unless they opt out | The Verge

Grammarly turned me into an AI editor and I hate it | Platformer

Grammarly is using our identities without permission | The Verge

Grammarly is changing its name to Superhuman | The Verge

Grammarly wants to become an ‘AI productivity platform’ | The Verge

Viacom v. YouTube, 2007 | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices