AI and Ghostwriting

James Taranto is the editorial features editor of the Wall Street Journal. I have published many pieces with James over the years. He is a tough editor who ensures the Journal has the highest quality pages. The process is not always fun, but at the end, I am confident that the best material is published.

In a new commentary, Taranto explains in some detail how he does his job, and what role AI plays. I learned a lot, even as someone who publishes Op-Eds in leading papers.

Taranto explains how he uses AI:

I use artificial intelligence when I write articles, including this one. I run partial or complete drafts through a chatbot and ask what it thinks. It spits out copious suggestions, some of which inspire me to make revisions and improvements. . . .

I ensure the integrity of my own work with a simple rule: I never paste AI output into a piece I'm writing (except when AI transcribes text from an image or recording, and then I check the quote against the source). That has been my practice since I started using AI, and it is consistent with the Journal editorial page's policy for staff, which my boss, Paul Gigot, announced last month: "No letting AI draft a column or editorial."

Taranto rejects calls to include any sort of disclaimer about his AI usage. He is quite right that readers would become tired with the same statement in every essay. But his deeper point is that the use of AI as a tool is little different from the longstanding practice of ghostwriting. Taranto explains that during his early career, he would ghostwrite op-eds for the late Ed Feulner at Heritage.

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 perspective, would there be much of a difference between asking a young Taranto to write a column, and asking Claude to do it? I suppose there are differences. Most authors do not have stables of interns and associates standing by to write things. That works at a large institution like Heritage. In a sense, Claude gives everyone the resources of a large think tank. AI democratizes things. And if a leader like Feulner is find delegating all of the work to an intern, what's the problem with delegating the same work to AI.

Feulner is just one example. Virtually every politician uses ghostwriters. Does anyone believe a book by a politician was actually written by that politician?

Ditto for judges. Long before ChatGPT, how often did a judge write all opinions in their entirely? With the exception of Judges like Posner or Easterbrook, I would wager the number is very low.

Indeed, when judges write books, they too use ghostwriters. Consider this passage from Justice Sotomayor's book, 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 very likely acknowledgment of a ghostwriter. Justice Gorsuch, to his credit, lists his co-author.

I still do not wish to use AI. When you see typos in my posts, please view that as evidence of my refusenik status. It is becoming harder to avoid Gemini, as every Google search spits out AI answers. I will always click the links and check the primary source.