An AI imitation of a real person that is not just uncanny but embarrassingly bad. Coined by writer Ingrid Burrington as a play on “doppelgänger,” the term names what happens when a company builds an AI persona around someone’s name and reputation without their consent, and the result is clunky and potentially career-damaging. The Grammarly case is the textbook example: suggestions so poor that a journalist taking them would look incompetent.

Angwin, Julia (2026): Why I’m Suing Grammarly