Tag Archives: grammar

A copy editor sizes up her A.I. competition

An illustration of a robot reading a book.

The Grammarly plug-in promises to free your writing of mistakes. Can it replace a human copy editor? A biased investigation.

Like a taxi driver warily eyeing a fleet of self-driving Waymos, I didn’t exactly welcome Grammarly’s arrival on the scene. The San Francisco–headquartered company creates software that detects common spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in text. You can install a free extension in your web browser to automatically flag these errors as you type up emails, Google Docs, and many other editable text fields.

Admittedly, I have my reasons to be leery. I’m a professional copy editor and have been for over a decade, correcting copy for freelance clients including Apple and The New Yorker. But when friends tease me that A.I.-based technology like Grammarly will put me out of business, I confidently scoff.

Continue Reading →