Harvard professor Ricardo Hausmann faces scrutiny over AI-assisted op-ed

The Financial Times has issued an editorial note admitting that artificial intelligence was used to condense an op-ed written by Harvard professor Ricardo Hausmann. The article, which criticized President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, faced scrutiny after readers on social media flagged its prose as machine-generated.

According to the publication, AI was utilized to shorten a longer draft of the column prior to its submission and subsequent editorial review. This disclosure has sparked debate regarding the boundaries of AI assistance versus authorship, particularly as the Financial Times maintains a policy stating that journalism is created by its reporters and editors.

Some social media users utilized an AI detection tool called Pangram, which suggested that a significant portion of the 841-word article was generated by AI. However, the reliability of such detection tools remains a subject of ongoing dispute within the industry.