Harvard Professor Slammed After AI Used to Write Anti-Trump Op-Ed
A Harvard professor is facing backlash after artificial intelligence was used to help write an anti-Trump opinion piece attacking President Trump’s tariff policies, raising questions about academic credibility and the growing reliance on AI-generated writing.
Ricardo Hausmann, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former Venezuelan government minister, published the column in the Financial Times. The piece argued against Trump’s trade policies and attempted to explain why tariffs were damaging to the American economy.
The controversy erupted after readers noticed writing patterns they believed resembled AI-generated prose. An analysis subsequently estimated that approximately 71% of the article appeared to have been generated or heavily influenced by artificial intelligence.
The Financial Times later added an editor’s note acknowledging that AI had been used during the preparation of the column. According to the newspaper, Hausmann used an AI tool to condense an earlier draft before submitting the piece for publication.
That use violated the Financial Times’ editorial code, which prohibits contributors from using generative AI to write or substantially rewrite material submitted for publication. The disclosure transformed what had been an economic argument against Trump into a debate about journalistic and academic standards.
Critics quickly mocked the article’s writing. University of Maine journalism professor Michael Socolow described the piece as some of the “worst slop” he had seen and questioned what kind of message the incident sends to students who are routinely warned against allowing artificial intelligence to do their work.
Bloomberg journalist Joe Weisenthal also criticized the situation, noting the irony of readers being asked to pay for an opinion column that had been condensed using AI rather than being entirely crafted by its highly credentialed author.
The controversy is particularly awkward for Harvard as universities across the country wrestle with how students should use artificial intelligence. Harvard professors themselves have publicly discussed concerns that students can use AI as a substitute for thinking and writing, potentially undermining the educational process.
Hausmann’s case highlights the difficulty universities face enforcing expectations surrounding original work when professors and other prominent academics are themselves incorporating generative AI into published material.
The episode has also handed Trump supporters an easy target. An op-ed intended to criticize the president’s economic agenda is instead receiving widespread attention because artificial intelligence was used to help produce it, leaving the Harvard professor defending not only his argument but the process used to put it into print.