(Shall I compare thee to a broken update?)
By Bocephus Jackson, The Hemlock Bard, ©2026 Bocephus Jackson. All Rights Reserved
āCry āHavoc!ā, and let slip the dogs of war.ā ā Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Why did Shakespeare use āEt tuā instead of āEt toi?ā According to Suetonius, a Roman historian, Caesar's Greek phrase: āKai su, teknon?" was translated into Latin by later writers. Where translation is treachery by committee, Grammarly has become the newest conspirator. āShall I compare thee to a summerās day?ā
[Autocorrect suggestion: āShall I compare thee to an earnings report?ā]
Every suggestion it makes is another conspirator stepping out from among the shadows. Whether patched or the latest victim, Grammarly has worked itself from an overpriced blessing into an enduring burden, where the son of a beast offers daily hallucinations and erroneous autocorrects. āFriends, Romans, countrymen⦠lend me your ears!ā
[Autocorrect suggestion: āFriends, 1994-2004; 10 Seasons. RomComs, Countrytime Lemonade⦠Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer!]
This is a tragic lament of every writer as AI technology presents far more flaws than features. Of nearly 100 AI models field-tested and used over eight months, only three remain structurally viable as post-creation editors. āTo be or not to be. That is the question.ā
[Autocorrect suggestion: To correct or not to correctāthat is the question?]
In producing 3-5 literary works per day, 7 days a week, within a couple of months, each model suffers Caesarās fate through endless bleeds. So much for them sounding their Whitmanean yawp across the rooftopsā¦
[Autocorrect suggestion: Yelp Review ā #1769 That āSlap Chopā guy gives off Andy Dick vibes. I am going to call my congressman and Chris Hansen over his āYou are going to love my nutsā line. Love the product though! It does wonders for juicy sausages. And don't get me started on what it does to heavy melons!]
ā¦Grammarly is presently exsanguinating in another window presently. For what limited features the app offers, reliability justifies(?!) the cost. āAlas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand timesā¦ā But now?
[Autocorrect suggestion: Alas, power yogurt. Check expiration date.]
Every word typed morphs into a linguistic autocorrect of hallucinated hubris rather than actual grammatical errors. The correlation is that Caesar suffered due to his ambitions, whereas Grammarly has yet to achieve any victories, large or small.
Its saving grace is that the market is a Shakespearean tempest of compromise, where form rarely meets function. Every editor shares the same core complaints: an overabundance of forced em dashes, translation inconsistencies, and sanded-down language. As the Cassius of code, I want to break Prosperoās staff over its server.
[Autocorrect suggestion: āPapa John's coupon ā Buy one get one free with a yearly online subscription: $169.99.ā]
Grammarly exceeds this with repeated authorial rewrites mid-sentence. But the greatest betrayal, where McCarthyism is alive and well in the digital age, lies in the syntactical restructuring of prose or poetry that ultimately leads to an AI-flagged warning from the very app that causes it.
If āAll the world's a stage,ā as a writer, we live and die under the auspices of this Scarlett Letterā¦.
[Autocorrect suggestion: āAll Smashburger locations now offer delivery. āDonāt forget to get an order of our garlic rosemary fries. Theyāll give you gastric flux, but in the end, everything will flow like a Shakespearean sonnet!ā]
If Grammarly is to be a worthy emperor over other editors, it has to earn its riches. For now, it is but a courtly jester flagging errors that are much ado about nothing, forcing autocorrect as it likes it.
[Autocorrect suggestion: Do The Right Thing; a Spike Lee film (1989)]
Otherwise, die, Caesar, die! So, ābrother, help me.ā Because these errors are driving me to Learās madness, someone call 911 and get my shotgun loaded with Oxford Commas. It's time to go Hemingway on the algorithmic antagonist of the modern artist.
[Autocorrect suggestion: āAnd to the strength, so go the length/Thinkin' you are first when you really are tenth/You better wake up and smell the real flavor/āCause 911 is a fake life-saver. Public Enemy; '911 Is a Joke.']
Ugh!! ...Beware the Ides of March... No daggers wielded but deception, no swords, but flagged stanzas, good morrow Grammarly, March brings bad tidingsā¦
[Autocorrect suggestion: Schedule conflict. Resend Iran invite?]
āI come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.ā ā Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
©2026 Bocephus Jackson. All Rights Reserved