Wall Street Journal defends AI op-ed as 'meat proxy' goes viral

The Wall Street Journal has defended its decision to publish an opinion piece that was written with the help of artificial intelligence, while a new phrase describing humans who blindly pass on AI-generated text has gained traction online.

The article in question was by the investor Stan Druckenmiller. After a reporter asked him about it, Druckenmiller said he had used a large language model, describing it as a tool much like a calculator. The Journal's editorial page editor pushed back against critics in a piece headlined "Much Ado About Artificial Intelligence", arguing that outside contributors who are not professional writers should be allowed to use AI.

The editor wrote: "The rule for those of us at Wall Street Journal opinion is that everything my colleagues and I write must be original work. No letting AI draft a column or editorial. The question is more complicated for outside contributors like Mr Druckenmiller. They aren't professional writers, yet they can provide value for readers owing to their expertise and standing in public life."

This defence drew sharp reactions. Will Oremus, a staff writer at The Atlantic, said the editor had skipped past the consensus that AI use should be disclosed. "The journal's editor said, disclose what? There's nothing to disclose," Oremus noted. He argued that readers deserve to know whether a bylined piece was written by the person or by a chatbot. At The Atlantic, staff are barred from using AI-generated text without clear disclosure.

Diane Brady, executive editorial director at Fortune, took a different view. She said the fault lay with the editor, not the writer, and that what matters is the final result. "I presume there could be help. What I judge is the end result. And does this feel authentic, fresh, original?" She added that publications rarely disclose the use of researchers or speechwriters, so AI help should be treated the same way. However, she acknowledged that the piece had "some of the hallmarks of AI", being too long and generic.

Meanwhile, the term "meat proxy" became a social media phenomenon. It was coined by Niklas Gruen, a German software engineer at DeepL, to describe people who copy and paste AI output without thinking. He explained that a proxy is a program that forwards information unchanged, and humans doing the same are "made out of meat". Gruen criticised the practice: "If you're a meat proxy, then you're pushing the effort of understanding this text to other people, while at the same time, you're kind of absolving yourself of the responsibility."

The two developments together highlight a growing debate about the role of AI in journalism and communication. As AI tools become more common, news organisations and the public are grappling with questions of authorship, disclosure, and the value of human judgment.