WSJ defends Druckenmiller's AI-written op-ed on Bessent

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller that the AI-detection firm Pangram graded 100 percent AI-generated, and when NOTUS confronted him, Druckenmiller answered "of course" he used AI. "I'm not embarrassed by it," he told the outlet. "I write everything using AI now for the same reason I use a calculator when I do math problems."

In The Atlantic, Will Oremus reads the episode as a turning point: the first time a major American paper defended a chatbot-written column instead of running for cover.

The op-ed, "Let the Bond Market Speak," went after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Druckenmiller's onetime protégé, over the Treasury's plan to double the maximum value of longer-dated securities it can buy back. Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot defended publication in his own words. "AI is a fact of modern life," Gigot said, telling readers Druckenmiller's contribution was valuable and he was welcome anytime. The paper did not append an AI-use disclosure to the piece.

Oremus's sharpest move is to place the Druckenmiller defense next to the Mia Ballard case. Ballard's horror novel Shy Girl was pulled by Hachette after Pangram scored it 78 percent AI-generated; her US release was cancelled and her UK release discontinued. Same detection tool, roughly the same accusation. Reputation and stature, in Oremus's reading, look like the actual determinant of who gets forgiveness.

Whether the Journal stands alone became a story of its own. When Nieman Lab's Joshua Benton contacted opinion editors at 24 US newspapers, none of those who responded said they were willing to follow the Journal's lead.