The world’s leading writing assistance tool — Grammarly — has been powered by artificial intelligence since 2009 and keeps evolving with the technology. Founder Max Lytvyn speaks about using AI in writing and warnings about AI’s future.

Vancouver

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Grammarly co-founder Max Lytvyn, a Ukrainian-Canadian tech executive, shared insights into his personal background, the company's growth, and the increasing role of artificial intelligence in communication. Lytvyn emphasized that while AI-powered tools like Grammarly offer users control over their writing style and voice, it is essential to remain mindful of the technology's influence.

Addressing concerns raised by AI experts about potential risks, Lytvyn agreed that urgent and thoughtful action is needed to ensure AI is developed safely. He stated that while corporations have a responsibility, government and societal oversight are necessary. Lytvyn advised people not to avoid AI, warning that those who do may be left behind by others who learn to use it effectively.

Grammarly founder advises people to avoid AI at their own risk

Max, real pleasure meeting you. Thanks for having me, Ian. There's so much to talk to you about. A Ukrainian-Canadian tech executive. And both you personally, but I think your company as well, has been very active in terms of supporting Ukraine since the invasion by Russia. Tell me about that. Yeah. First, I want to say that I'm safe. My life is not in danger. And what I'm experiencing is in no way comparable to what Ukrainians are experiencing in Ukraine now. But it did touch me quite strongly and quite personally. Sorry, just a second. Maybe just to give you context of why it is such a difficult subject for me, Ukrainians, besides the horrors of what's happening now, just a bit of a story from my childhood. When I was back in the Soviet Union in my early preschool daycare, it was a Russian-speaking daycare. And I was speaking Ukrainian in my house, in my home, with my parents, grandparents. But there I was speaking Russian. And after going away for summer, I would come back and I would use Ukrainian words or sentences and speaking with my peers there. And at one point, my teacher sent me to a doctor to cure of me a speech impediment, which was my native language. And that's one of my earliest memories of my childhood, being sent to the doctor to get cured of my native language. Yeah. I think back to President Zelensky and the very cold reception he got from President Trump. And I can't imagine how you would have felt watching that. And I just wonder, you've got that moment, you've got what President Trump has said about Canada, which has obviously angered a lot of people here. Do you have any misgivings about having a company with a head office in the United States, in San Francisco? Does that create any difficulties for you? In some ways, it does. In some ways, it does. For example, I'm being more careful about what I post online. I don't talk publicly about some of the ways I support Ukraine because that may be viewed as too drastic, too radical. One of the reasons we opened office in the United States was stability and rule of law, and I feel like that's eroded quite a bit. Yeah. You live in Vancouver. Yes. You could have chosen anywhere in the world to make your home. Why here? Well, quality of life. I'll be honest about it. I just really, really like it here. And initially, I came to Canada and brought my family to Canada because of opportunities, starting business, very clear legal framework to start a business, very clear legal framework to immigrate. So that was very attractive to me, very welcome in society where I don't feel like I'm not welcome. I don't feel like I'm, you know... A foreigner. Yeah, I don't feel like a foreigner, exactly. Almost from day one, I didn't feel like a foreigner. It was amazing. So that's why I came to Canada initially. And Vancouver specifically, it's an amazing place. It is like a giant playground. It has all the benefits that human civilization can provide, but at the same time, nature is everywhere, it's not too crowded, it's great. Litvin, as well as another of Grammarly's co-founders, live in Vancouver. Since they started the company in Ukraine in 2009, the writing assistance app has grown in popularity. The company says it has 40 million daily users and expanded its services, powered by artificial intelligence. So once upon a time, Grammarly, I think, was known as a tool that could check spelling and improve grammar and syntax. Now I think it can polish the style of the writing, for example. And so, in principle, that troubles me a little bit, because I think to myself that writing is an expression of who we are. And so if I write a letter to a prospective employer or a complaint to a company or a love letter, I want that to reflect who I am, not your artificial intelligence. Should I be worried about that? I would say no. And I'll explain why. Surprisingly. Yeah, I will elaborate why. First, yes, I realize that we realize as a company that communication and personal voice and tone are very personal things. It's part of our identity. So we try to preserve it as much as possible. And we start with providing our feedback in a way that it's a feedback. It's a recommendation. It's not a judgment. It's not a directive. And we try to present it from the audience standpoint. How your audience would perceive it. Would they understand it? What questions they would have? What emotions they would feel? And so on. And that is much easier to explain to people why they need to change sometimes their voice. Because sometimes you need to change it. Sometimes that's not what you intended. And that may involve changing your tone in some ways, but not in all the ways. And we always put user in control. You're free to accept or not accept any suggestions. Or you're free to tweak it to tell Grammarly that I don't want to be formal. I want to be informal here. Or I don't want to polish the rough edges. I want to leave the rough edges in. That's completely... And Grammarly will fine tune its feedback to take that into account. I don't want to be alarmist. And sometimes when it comes to tech things, people tend to exaggerate. But then I think about Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize laureate. And when he accepted the Nobel Prize, he made some pretty dire comments about the potential dangers of AI. In the near future, AI may be used to create terrible new viruses and horrendous lethal weapons that decide by themselves who to kill or maim. All of these short-term risks require urgent and forceful attention from governments and international organizations. There is also a longer-term existential threat that will arise when we create digital beings that are more intelligent than ourselves. We have no idea whether we can stay in control. But we now have evidence that if they are created by companies motivated by short-term profits, our safety will not be the top priority. We urgently need research on how to prevent these new beings from wanting to take control. They are no longer science fiction. Thank you. That's really strong language. And it's also coming from somebody who won the Nobel Prize for his work with AI. What do you think of his warnings? I think to a large degree it's true. And there I would focus on the word short-term. And we want to make that term as short as possible. We want to act quickly. We want to act decisively. We want to pay attention to this. It is possible to have it all. It is possible to have AI that's powerful and safe. I firmly believe that. But it requires urgent and thoughtful work. Does government need to get more involved here? Do we need stricter regulations? Can we trust tech companies to do that for us? Not fully. I don't think we can fully trust companies. Corporations are selfish by law. And they will have to do whatever they need to do to benefit their shareholders. And there is social responsibility, but it needs to be enforced. It needs to be, at least that's my belief, that society needs to provide some guidance, at least guidance, if not rules, to corporations. Let me finish with this. Some people watching this are afraid of AI. Some people are eager to embrace it. I'm sure you're somewhere in the middle. You're probably not afraid of it. But what's your advice to them? My advice is embrace it. Even if you're afraid of it, there is a saying, keep your enemies close. Do that, yes. And I've heard a saying that, and I think it's very true, that you're not going to be replaced by AI, you're going to be replaced by people who know how to use AI. That's what you should keep in mind, yeah.

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Grammarly founder advises people to avoid AI at their own risk

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