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The Surprising History of Spell Checkers—and What It Means for AI-Anxious Editors

artificial intelligence

Years ago, when a colleague mentioned that Microsoft Word 365’s Editor feature uses AI, I had one of those “wait, what?” moments. That little blue quill icon I'd been clicking? AI all along. By then, I’d already shifted away from copyediting to focus on developmental editing and business coaching, so I wasn’t actively using the tool—but the discovery stuck with me.

After ChatGPT came onto the scene and I started diving deep into learning about generative AI, I kept thinking about the Word Editor revelation. So, being me, I decided to dig into the history of spell-checking software—I was curious about how we got from simple spell checkers to AI-powered editing tools. What I didn't expect to find was a 65-year timeline that reads like a dress rehearsal for many of the AI conversations and debates we’re having right now. The resistance, the fear of obsolescence, the gradual (often grudging) acceptance—it was all there, decades before ChatGPT.

Here’s what I discovered.

The Dawn of Digital Spell Checking (1959 to 1970s)

Our story begins in 1959 at the University of Pennsylvania, where a team led by Zellig S. Harris and Henry Hiz created the world’s first computer program to analyze grammar. This wasn’t a spell checker yet, but it laid the groundwork for everything that followed.

Two years later, Les Earnest at MIT took things further. While working on a cursive handwriting recognizer (because apparently he liked to tackle the hard problems first), he created what's considered the first true spelling checker. Armed with a list of 10,000 common English words, this program could identify when handwritten words didn’t match anything in its database.

The real breakthrough came in 1971 when Ralph Gorin created SPELL at Stanford’s AI Lab. Unlike its predecessors, SPELL was interactive—it could actually suggest corrections. Think about that for a moment: More than 50 years ago, a computer program was making editorial suggestions. Gorin’s creation spread globally through ARPANET (the precursor to the internet), introducing the wider academic community to automated spell checking.

By the late 1970s, spell checkers had become standard on mainframe computers at universities and large corporations. Linguists from Georgetown University even developed specialized systems for IBM. But these tools required expensive mainframe access and technical expertise that put them out of reach for everyday professionals.

Spell Check Goes Mainstream (1980s)

Everything changed in 1980 with the release of WordCheck for Commodore systems. For the first time, regular people could buy spell-checking software for their personal computers. The marketing was so enthusiastic that it often used all-caps to make its point—here’s one early advertisement promising that the program “checks EVERY SINGLE WORD”!

 

 

When IBM released its PC in 1981, software developers scrambled to create spell checkers for the new platform. The competition was fierce, with multiple companies racing to capture this emerging market. But the real revolution came in the mid-1980s when WordPerfect and WordStar did something radical: They built spell checking directly into their word processors.

This integration seems obvious now, but at the time it was controversial. Standalone spell-checker companies suddenly faced extinction as their product became a built-in feature. Critics worried that making spell checking too easy would make writers lazy and careless.

The Features We Take for Granted (1990s to 2000s)

The 1990s brought innovations that would define how we think about spell checking. In 1993, Dean Hachamovitch at Microsoft invented AutoCorrect for Word 6.0. This feature—which automatically fixed common typos as you typed—was initially met with skepticism. Writers complained about losing control over their text. Editors worried it would mask persistent errors that writers needed to learn from in order to improve. Some even predicted that writers would no longer see the need to hire professional copyeditors—if the computer could catch these errors, why pay a human?

Then came 1995 and those famous red squiggly underlines in Word ’95. Background spell checking had arrived. No longer did you need to run a separate check at the end of your document; the computer would flag potential errors in real time. Again, the response was mixed. Some embraced the efficiency, while others found it distracting and intrusive.

By 2006, spell checking had escaped the bounds of word processors entirely. Firefox 2.0 brought spell checking to web browsers, extending this technology to email, forums, and anywhere else people wrote online. Spell checking had become part of the invisible infrastructure of digital writing—so ubiquitous we barely noticed it anymore.

Enter the AI Era (2010s to Present)

Somewhere in the 2010s, spell checkers quietly evolved from rule-based systems to incorporating machine learning and AI. Instead of just matching words against a dictionary, modern spell checkers began understanding context. They could recognize that “there,” “their,” and “they're” were all correctly spelled but might be used incorrectly.

This brings us to Word 365's Editor feature—the discovery that started this whole investigation. When Microsoft integrated AI into its grammar and style checking, it didn't make a big announcement about “revolutionary AI technology.” It just quietly enhanced a tool we'd been using for decades. The blue quill icon looks innocuous enough, but behind it lies sophisticated AI that can analyze tone, clarity, and even make suggestions about inclusive language.

This evolution from simple dictionary matching to context-aware AI assistance happened so gradually that most of us didn't notice. We just kept clicking our buttons and accepting (or rejecting) suggestions, just as we'd been doing since the 1990s.

What Spell-Checker History Teaches Us About AI

Looking at this timeline, a pattern emerges. Major advancements in spell-checking technology were met with many of the same concerns:

  • It will make writers lazy
  • It will replace human expertise
  • It will lower writing quality standards
  • It will eliminate editorial jobs

Yet here we are, 65 years later, and the editorial profession hasn't just survived—it's evolved and expanded. Spell checkers didn’t eliminate the need for copyeditors and proofreaders; they allowed these professionals to focus on higher-level concerns.

The parallel to today’s AI discussions is fascinating to me. When SPELL first suggested corrections in 1971, it must have seemed magical—a computer that could “think” about language. When AutoCorrect arrived in 1993, critics worried about computers making decisions that should be left to humans. By the time real-time checking appeared in 1995, people were already fretting about constant computer oversight of their writing.

Moving Forward with Perspective

Understanding this history has shifted how I think about AI in editing. Yes, we’ve navigated technological changes before—spell checkers, AutoCorrect, real-time grammar checking—and each time, editors adapted and found ways to add value. But let’s be honest: Generative AI is different. It’s more powerful, more unpredictable, and frankly, more unsettling than anything we’ve faced before.

Still, this history offers some reassurance. The editors who thrived through past transitions were those who learned to work with new tools rather than ignore them or rail against them. They understood that spell checkers could catch typos but couldn’t ensure clarity. They recognized that AutoCorrect could fix common mistakes but couldn’t preserve an author’s voice. They found their place in the evolving landscape by focusing on what only humans can do.

Today, as we grapple with generative AI tools that can write entire paragraphs and restructure documents, we’re in uncharted territory. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen—nobody does. The technology is evolving at breakneck speed, and the implications are still unfolding. But one pattern from history seems worth holding on to: Tools evolve, but human judgment endures. How this will play out with generative AI remains to be seen, but understanding where we’ve been gives us a starting point for navigating where we’re going.

The Timeline of Spell Checkers

  • 1959: First grammar checker created at University of Pennsylvania
  • 1961: Les Earnest develops first spell checker at MIT
  • 1971: SPELL at Stanford offers interactive corrections
  • 1980: WordCheck brings spell checking to personal computers
  • 1981: Multiple spell checkers released for IBM PC
  • Mid-1980s: WordPerfect and WordStar integrate spell checking
  • 1993: Microsoft introduces AutoCorrect
  • 1995: Word 95 debuts real-time spell checking with red underlines
  • 2006: Firefox 2.0 adds spell checking to web browsers
  • 2010s: AI and machine learning enhance context awareness
  • Today: AI-powered tools like Word 365's Editor blend traditional checking with advanced language analysis

Sources

Other Posts in My “Editors and AI” Series

Further AI Resources for Editors

 

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Molly McCowan

Lead Word Nerd & Certified Business Coach

As a sought-after nonfiction developmental editor, certified business coach, and instructor, Molly is passionate about helping editorial entrepreneurs and authors put their best work out into the world.

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