James Taranto holds the role of editorial features editor at the Wall Street Journal. Over the years I have collaborated with him on numerous pieces. He is a demanding editor who ensures the Journal’s pages uphold the highest standards. The editing process can be strenuous, but in the end I am confident that the strongest material ends up published.
In a fresh commentary, Taranto lays out, with notable clarity, how he approaches his work and what part AI plays in it. I gained substantial insight, even as someone who regularly publishes Op-Eds in leading newspapers.
Taranto describes his use of AI:
I incorporate artificial intelligence into my writing, including this article. I feed drafts—partial or complete—into a chatbot and ask for its input. It furnishes a wealth of suggestions, some of which spur me to revise and refine. …
I safeguard the integrity of my own work with a straightforward rule: I never insert AI-produced text into a piece I’m drafting (except when AI transcribes text from an image or recording, and in that case I verify the quotation against the source). That has guided my practice since I began working with AI, and it aligns with the Journal’s editorial-page policy for staff, which my boss, Paul Gigot, announced last month: “No letting AI draft a column or editorial.”
Taranto resists demands to attach any disclaimer about his AI use. He is right that readers would soon tire of hearing the same line in every essay. But his deeper argument is that treating AI as a tool is not fundamentally different from the longstanding practice of ghostwriting. Taranto points out that early in his career he would ghostwrite op-eds for the late Ed Feulner at the Heritage Foundation.
I have also ghostwritten op-eds. My first full-time job was in the PR department of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, which I joined two months after Mr. Posner’s article appeared in 1988. Among my duties was to produce one op-ed column a week for the foundation’s president, Ed Feulner. I would select a topic, draft a formulaic piece about it, and send it upstairs, where Feulner would edit it (in most cases minimally), approve it, and send it back. It was then printed and sent by mail to newspapers across the U.S., which could publish it free of charge.
I was somewhat uncomfortable with this practice, and Heritage found it embarrassing enough that my boss there once told me I was forbidden to mention “ghostwriting” on my résumé. But in retrospect I don’t think it was all that bad. Feulner was known more as an advocate than a scholar, and Heritage scholars generally wrote their own material, which I sometimes compressed to op-ed length. I found it distasteful mostly because it was drudge work, as were other tasks such as writing press releases.
From Feulner’s viewpoint, would there be much of a difference between asking a young Taranto to compose a column and asking Claude to do the same? There are distinctions, of course. Most writers do not have a rotating staff of interns and associates ready to produce material. That arrangement works at a large institution like Heritage. In a sense, Claude furnishes everyone with the resources of a major think tank. AI democratizes access. And if a leader like Feulner felt comfortable delegating all the work to an intern, what’s the issue with delegating the same tasks to AI?
Feulner is merely one illustration. Virtually every politician relies on ghostwriters. Does anyone truly believe a politician’s book was authored solely by the politician?
Ditto for judges. Long before ChatGPT, how often did a judge author all of their opinions in full? With the exception of judges like Posner or Easterbrook, I would wager the number is very small.
Indeed, when judges write books, they too enlist ghostwriters. Consider a passage from Justice Sotomayor’s My Beloved World:
Given the demands of my day job, this book would not have been possible without the collaboration of Zara Houshmand. Zara, a most talented writer herself, listened to my endless stories and those of my families and friends, and helped choose those that in retelling would paint the most authentic picture of my life experiences. Zara, you are an incredible person with a special ability to help others understand and express themselves better; I am deeply indebted to your assistance. One of the most profound treasures of this process has been the gift of your friendship, which will last a lifetime.
This is highly likely an acknowledgment of a ghostwriter. Justice Gorsuch, to his credit, lists his co-author.
I continue to prefer not using AI. When you encounter typos in my posts, please regard that as evidence of my stubborn stance. It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid Gemini, as every Google search returns AI-generated results. I will always click the links and verify the primary sources.
