Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller has revealed he used artificial intelligence to write his viral Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which he sharply criticized Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, for interfering in the US bond market.
Many news outlets, including the Guardian, covered the editorial, highlighting Druckenmiller's rebuke of his former mentee. As the story circulated online, some readers questioned rhetorical choices in the piece that resembled AI-generated text.
Druckenmiller's admission
On Tuesday, Druckenmiller admitted to using the technology. "I'm not embarrassed by it," he told Notus.
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, defended Druckenmiller in a statement.
"The question for us is whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author's original argument, and if the author has the standing and credibility to make it. In Stan Druckenmiller's case, we have had a relationship with him for many years, and nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion," Gigot said.
He also called AI "a fact of modern life".
Druckenmiller's defense
Druckenmiller further defended the choice in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "At 73 I'm kind of proud of using it," he said, also telling the paper: "These are my ideas and I've been speaking about them for over 15 years, as anyone who knows me knows. Would I prefer that I was a great writer? Yes, but that's not who I am."
In his op-ed, Druckenmiller opposed the US treasury doubling the size of its government debt buybacks.
Media grappling with AI use
The controversy comes as the media industry continues to grapple with its parameters around AI use.
A UC Berkeley math professor came under heat this month for using AI to edit an op-ed in the San Francisco Standard. Zvezdelina Stankova maintained the piece, which argued that test-blind college admissions has resulted in under-prepared students, was the result of "intensive human work". The Standard said, to their understanding, the piece reflected the "original analysis" of Stankova and her colleagues.
In March, the New York Times cut ties with a freelance journalist, whose use of AI resulted in plagiarism from a Guardian book review. The Times added an editor's note to the journalist's book review, noting a violation of its standards.
