AI can do a number of things well, including astronomy-related tasks, but it also has a tendency to step on toes and steal other peoples creations. This was certainly the case with the editing program Grammarly, which wanted to go beyond simple grammar-related corrections. Instead, it started bragging about how it could edit like various famous writers and other well known individuals via a service called Expert Review.
Would you like Carl Sagan to edit your work? Well, Expert Review can help. How about Neil deGrasse Tyson? Sure, why not?
The problem is that Grammarly never obtained permission to mimic these parties, so now it faced a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The Guardian newspaper cites an company official who stated that Expert Review has already been taken down for redesign. That sounds a lot like a “rapid disassembly” of the service.
Many would like the equivalent of a Carl Sagan to be only a click away for advice and input, but this is not the way to do it.
We can only hope that AI services, currently backed by billions in investment funds, can one of these days figure out a way to (1) seek permission beforehand for data use and (2) share the wealth with true creators.
Until then, AI should stick to the raw AI astronomy data and stop impersonating the astronomers.
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