The world of journalism was consumed this week by a debate over whether The Wall Street Journal should have published an opinion piece that was written with the help of artificial intelligence. Politicians and business leaders have long used ghostwriters to write their op-eds and memoirs. But when billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller admitted on Tuesday to using AI to write an article critical of Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent’s policies, it prompted the same debates about authorship that arose in 1957 when it was alleged (but never confirmed) that President John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage was ghostwritten—while raising a new one for the people making a living writing in other people’s voices.
If Britney Spears can hire ghostwriters to help turn her partial memories into polished prose, why does asking ChatGPT to do the same thing feel like a whole other ball game? Is failing to disclose assistance deceptive? Why does the fantasy of an artist toiling away in solitude have so much appeal? “Huh?” I ask all you critics of Jeff Koons. Isn’t all good art a collaborative process? And will large language models ultimately replace ghostwriters?
I talked to several ghostwriters and their agents who say they aren’t concerned about that—at least for now—because they provide a service that algorithms can’t replicate.
Dan Gerstein, CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, says ghostwriting clients are looking for a writer, an interviewer, and a therapist wrapped in one. “The best collaborators are as much diplomats as they are writers,” Gerstein says. They have to know “when to push the gas and when to put on the brake.”
Unlike a good ghostwriter, large language models don’t know when to challenge a client’s narrative, or when to push them to be more vulnerable—though they may try. And while AI might be able to mimic the patterns and rhythms of someone’s voice, imitation is different from knowing when the art (including the art of persuasion) requires you to shake it up—go left.
In fact, the demand for elite ghostwriters has risen in recent years, according to Gerstein, because the celebrity-memoir market is hot. Vanity Fair’s global editorial director, Mark Guiducci, recently received an unsolicited email from a ghostwriter trying to sell him their services. (Guiducci writes his own editor’s letters and tells me he will never author a memoir, “with or without a ghostwriter.”)
