On August 24th, the WSJ published an op-ed by investor Stanley Druckenmiller that was flagged as 100% AI by detector tool Pangram. In response, Druckenmiller said, “Of course I used AI” and “I’m not embarrassed by it… I write everything using AI now for the same reason I use a calculator when I do math problems.” WSJ editorial page editor Paul Gigot defended publishing the piece, noting that outside contributors already lean on speechwriters and that ”what matters is the ultimate argument the author makes and stands behind.”
The WSJ’s defense of AI comes weeks after the FT appended a disclaimer to a column noting “It has come to our attention that AI was used to condense a longer draft of this column prior to submission to the FT and our own editorial involvement” without noting any violation of the publication’s principles around AI, which state “We will not allow AI to compromise the integrity of our journalism, which will continue to be reported, written and created by our journalists and editors.”
While AI authorship may be increasingly tolerated by these publications, other platforms are adopting tools to flag AI writing. Substack now tags user posts with suspected AI content, and LinkedIn shipped a “Seems like AI slop” reader flag, which reduced engagement with suspected AI posts by 40%.
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