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Grammarly has been having an identity crisis ever since LLMs made grammar checking accessible to every company at a fraction of the cost. ChatGPT is killing a l

Grammarly has been having an identity crisis ever since LLMs made grammar checking accessible to every company at a fraction of the cost. ChatGPT is killing a lot of companies and grammarly was the first collateral. This acquisition is concerning because Grammarly is well known for its bad privacy policy and how it's essentially a keylogger. Now that it has access to probably thousands of companies data hosted on Coda is a huge concern. But it's high time Grammarly evolves itself into some other product or die trying.

dr_kiszonka 2y ago
I am perplexed by Grammarly getting progressively worse as time goes by. I am seriously considering spending a weekend or two on writing myself a small LLM powered clone. I think a browser extension for Gmail should be relatively easy. I am not sure about Word (desktop) and Google Docs though.
- jerrygoyal 2y ago
  > I think a browser extension for gmail should be relatively easy. Hold your beer, I built that https://chatgptwriter.ai https://chatgptwriter.ai
  - dr_kiszonka 2y ago
    Haha nicely done! However, it is more expensive than Grammarly's annual plan and there is no Office app. I do like the different models, though, and it looks very polished. Have you considered letting users add their own "writing tones"? I have a few Custom GPTs for different types of recipients. Perhaps your users would like such a feature.
    - jerrygoyal 2y ago
      > Have you considered letting users add their own "writing tones"? Even better, I recently implemented the Prompt Template feature. You can create as many prompt templates as you like and insert them with one click. It's a recent feature, so the landing page is not updated, but you can try it for free (without adding a credit card) at https://chatgptwriter.ai/extension https://chatgptwriter.ai/extension.
  - NewsaHackO 2y ago
    This seems to be one of those glorified ChatGPT API wrappers. Only available on Chromium, free tier is 15 corrections a month with the next recommended tier being $350 dollars a year. I think I'll pass.
- layer8 2y ago
  > I am perplexed by Grammarly getting progressively worse as time goes by. Leadership issue.
- kreyenborgi 2y ago
  > I am perplexed by Grammarly getting progressively worse as time goes by They switched from parse trees and rules to LLMs, presumably some things got better and some got worse
fakedang 2y ago
Grammarly may have been collateral damage, but the first target to be nuked was Chegg.
- CamelCaseName 2y ago
  Students these days have no idea of the struggle. Then again, I can't imagine the struggle of having to rely entirely on libraries pre-internet
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    As a 70's child I wouldn't call it a struggle, at least we didn't saw it like that.
  - gosub100 2y ago
    I graduated in the mid 2000s, and right around that time they moved the main library collection into a mechanical bin that you have to request an attendant to request books for you. I have fond memories of looking up X, and going to the library and exploring the section where X was stored, along with all the books around it. this experience is dead now with their new "system". It's been about 20 years and I'm an old dog now with limited energy. but I would love to (if I were a political activist) do an expose story about how many books were checked out before this transfer was made vs after. I strongly suspect that a lot of knowledge was lost, just due to the friction of having to know which exact book you want, vs having the liberty to browse and freely select whatever you stumbled upon. and not all the info is online, now. due to licensing and copyright. Google Books tried to fight that, but lost. It's sad.
    - girvo 2y ago
      I loved going through our (small) programming & computers section in our school library in the early 2000s, and visiting the local library with a much larger one. I picked up PHP because of that :)
  - dougb5 2y ago
    We had fewer distractions, though, even if we didn't have all the world's information so close at hand. I think I'd pick that struggle again over what today's students go through. But I'm glad to have lived in both eras.
ChumpGPT 2y ago
>his acquisition is concerning because Grammarly is well known for its bad privacy policy and how it's essentially a keylogger. Now that it has access to probably thousands of companies data hosted on Coda is a huge concern. And how does ChatGPT differ?
raincole 2y ago
I didn't even know Grammarly had so much cash that they can acquire something. I thought it was on the road of being acquired since GPT 3.5 was out.
elondaits 2y ago
The other day, Grammarly marked a grammar error in my text. I wasn’t too sure about it, so I asked ChatGPT (4o) to explain it. It agreed with Grammarly. I wasn’t convinced and didn’t understand ChatGPTs justification, so I asked again but using the more advanced o1 model… this time ChatGPT said Grammarly was wrong. … ChatGPT is good at improving grammar, but it doesn’t “understand” what it’s doing (by design), and doesn’t have a complete and consistent ruleset, which is what you want in a grammar checker. Also, grammar and style rules change with time, and you want to have good and precise control of what rules you’re applying.
- gradschool 2y ago
  Can you share the alleged error and the arguments for and against it?
nomilk 2y ago
Is Grammarly anything more than glorified autocorrect? Curious if anyone here uses it, and if so, what value it provides (I've been bombarded with its ads for years, but could never see what value it provides). Even a quick search of its website gives inanely basic examples (like correcting Ive to I've) [1]. [1] https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047727871-How-to-install-Grammarly-on-a-desktop-computer https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047727871...
- stevenpetryk 2y ago
  It’s a glorified autocorrect. It is not useful for people who are already decent at writing.
- skeeter2020 2y ago
  My CTO uses it, which is frankly, terrifying. We'll be in a shared screen session editing slides for a board meeting or very sensitive docs, and their little UI prompts are shining away. ...and it's not like it improves his grammar or spelling - they're still terrible!
  - antihipocrat 2y ago
    Is the CTO aware that the information being checked could be leaked to a competitor?
    - azinman2 2y ago
      Do you think Grammarly is offering up individual’s logs to the highest bidder?
      - antihipocrat 2y ago
        A leak has already happened: https://www.engadget.com/2018-02-06-grammarly-patches-serious-vulnerability.html https://www.engadget.com/2018-02-06-grammarly-patches-seriou...
heraldgeezer 2y ago
What? But in chatgpt I have to copy it to chatgpt. With Grammarly it's right here in the text box as I am typing.
pona-a 2y ago
Grammarly at least used to be deterministic and fast. Its edits are consistent and its mistakes are easier to spot. That alone is enough of a value proposition over LLMs, especially since their tech required years of computational linguistics research, whereas anyone can write an OpenAI API wrapper...

dr_kiszonka 2y ago

I am perplexed by Grammarly getting progressively worse as time goes by. I am seriously considering spending a weekend or two on writing myself a small LLM powered clone. I think a browser extension for Gmail should be relatively easy. I am not sure about Word (desktop) and Google Docs though.

jerrygoyal 2y ago
> I think a browser extension for gmail should be relatively easy. Hold your beer, I built that https://chatgptwriter.ai https://chatgptwriter.ai
- dr_kiszonka 2y ago
  Haha nicely done! However, it is more expensive than Grammarly's annual plan and there is no Office app. I do like the different models, though, and it looks very polished. Have you considered letting users add their own "writing tones"? I have a few Custom GPTs for different types of recipients. Perhaps your users would like such a feature.
  - jerrygoyal 2y ago
    > Have you considered letting users add their own "writing tones"? Even better, I recently implemented the Prompt Template feature. You can create as many prompt templates as you like and insert them with one click. It's a recent feature, so the landing page is not updated, but you can try it for free (without adding a credit card) at https://chatgptwriter.ai/extension https://chatgptwriter.ai/extension.
- NewsaHackO 2y ago
  This seems to be one of those glorified ChatGPT API wrappers. Only available on Chromium, free tier is 15 corrections a month with the next recommended tier being $350 dollars a year. I think I'll pass.
layer8 2y ago
> I am perplexed by Grammarly getting progressively worse as time goes by. Leadership issue.
kreyenborgi 2y ago
> I am perplexed by Grammarly getting progressively worse as time goes by They switched from parse trees and rules to LLMs, presumably some things got better and some got worse

fakedang 2y ago

Grammarly may have been collateral damage, but the first target to be nuked was Chegg.

CamelCaseName 2y ago
Students these days have no idea of the struggle. Then again, I can't imagine the struggle of having to rely entirely on libraries pre-internet
- pjmlp 2y ago
  As a 70's child I wouldn't call it a struggle, at least we didn't saw it like that.
- gosub100 2y ago
  I graduated in the mid 2000s, and right around that time they moved the main library collection into a mechanical bin that you have to request an attendant to request books for you. I have fond memories of looking up X, and going to the library and exploring the section where X was stored, along with all the books around it. this experience is dead now with their new "system". It's been about 20 years and I'm an old dog now with limited energy. but I would love to (if I were a political activist) do an expose story about how many books were checked out before this transfer was made vs after. I strongly suspect that a lot of knowledge was lost, just due to the friction of having to know which exact book you want, vs having the liberty to browse and freely select whatever you stumbled upon. and not all the info is online, now. due to licensing and copyright. Google Books tried to fight that, but lost. It's sad.
  - girvo 2y ago
    I loved going through our (small) programming & computers section in our school library in the early 2000s, and visiting the local library with a much larger one. I picked up PHP because of that :)
- dougb5 2y ago
  We had fewer distractions, though, even if we didn't have all the world's information so close at hand. I think I'd pick that struggle again over what today's students go through. But I'm glad to have lived in both eras.

ChumpGPT 2y ago

>his acquisition is concerning because Grammarly is well known for its bad privacy policy and how it's essentially a keylogger. Now that it has access to probably thousands of companies data hosted on Coda is a huge concern. And how does ChatGPT differ?

raincole 2y ago

I didn't even know Grammarly had so much cash that they can acquire something. I thought it was on the road of being acquired since GPT 3.5 was out.

elondaits 2y ago

The other day, Grammarly marked a grammar error in my text. I wasn’t too sure about it, so I asked ChatGPT (4o) to explain it. It agreed with Grammarly. I wasn’t convinced and didn’t understand ChatGPTs justification, so I asked again but using the more advanced o1 model… this time ChatGPT said Grammarly was wrong. … ChatGPT is good at improving grammar, but it doesn’t “understand” what it’s doing (by design), and doesn’t have a complete and consistent ruleset, which is what you want in a grammar checker. Also, grammar and style rules change with time, and you want to have good and precise control of what rules you’re applying.

gradschool 2y ago
Can you share the alleged error and the arguments for and against it?

nomilk 2y ago

Is Grammarly anything more than glorified autocorrect? Curious if anyone here uses it, and if so, what value it provides (I've been bombarded with its ads for years, but could never see what value it provides). Even a quick search of its website gives inanely basic examples (like correcting Ive to I've) [1]. [1] https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047727871-How-to-install-Grammarly-on-a-desktop-computer https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047727871...

stevenpetryk 2y ago
It’s a glorified autocorrect. It is not useful for people who are already decent at writing.
skeeter2020 2y ago
My CTO uses it, which is frankly, terrifying. We'll be in a shared screen session editing slides for a board meeting or very sensitive docs, and their little UI prompts are shining away. ...and it's not like it improves his grammar or spelling - they're still terrible!
- antihipocrat 2y ago
  Is the CTO aware that the information being checked could be leaked to a competitor?
  - azinman2 2y ago
    Do you think Grammarly is offering up individual’s logs to the highest bidder?
    - antihipocrat 2y ago
      A leak has already happened: https://www.engadget.com/2018-02-06-grammarly-patches-serious-vulnerability.html https://www.engadget.com/2018-02-06-grammarly-patches-seriou...

heraldgeezer 2y ago

What? But in chatgpt I have to copy it to chatgpt. With Grammarly it's right here in the text box as I am typing.

pona-a 2y ago

Grammarly at least used to be deterministic and fast. Its edits are consistent and its mistakes are easier to spot. That alone is enough of a value proposition over LLMs, especially since their tech required years of computational linguistics research, whereas anyone can write an OpenAI API wrapper...