The AI writing taboo begins to fade following WSJ op-ed
The Wall Street Journal not only acknowledged that billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller used AI for a newsmaking op-ed, but defended the practice. The stigma against using AI for writing appears to be wearing off. In what Semafor’s media editor called a “precedent-setting moment,” The Wall Street Journal not only acknowledged that billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller used AI for a newsmaking op-ed, but defended the practice: “ AI is a fact of modern life,” the Journal’s opinion editor said in a statement, adding that the paper cares more about whether an essay reflects the author’s genuine opinion. Newspaper op-eds from big names have long been ghostwritten by junior staffers or outside PR firms — no disclosure necessary, and often watered down and hyper-optimized to be as palatable as possible. In that sense, outsourcing to AI is just replacing one form of slop with another. Just look at LinkedIn, where many cringe human-generated posts have been replaced by AI. (And people do appear to care: The site’s new “ Seems like AI slop ” button has been clicked more than a million times.) Still, none of this means the Claude-ian prose is any good, or that publications like.
The Wall Street Journal not only acknowledged that billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller used AI for a newsmaking op-ed, but defended the practice.
The stigma against using AI for writing appears to be wearing off.
In what Semafor’s media editor called a “precedent-setting moment,” The Wall Street Journal not only acknowledged that billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller used AI for a newsmaking op-ed, but defended the practice: “ AI is a fact of modern life,” the Journal’s opinion editor said in a statement, adding that the paper cares more about whether an essay reflects the author’s genuine opinion.
Newspaper op-eds from big names have long been ghostwritten by junior staffers or outside PR firms — no disclosure necessary, and often watered down and hyper-optimized to be as palatable as possible.
In that sense, outsourcing to AI is just replacing one form of slop with another.
Just look at LinkedIn, where many cringe human-generated posts have been replaced by AI. (And people do appear to care: The site’s new “ Seems like AI slop ” button has been clicked more than a million times.) Still, none of this means the Claude-ian prose is any good, or that publications like the Journal shouldn’t disclose when AI is substantively used in an article.
The second-most important opinion page in the US should be more than a meat proxy.