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Harvard Prof Blasted for Using AI to Write Anti-Trump Op-Ed

A Harvard professor faces criticism after the Financial Times added a disclaimer to his opinion column, which AI detection tools found to be 71 percent artificially generated content.

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe Staff Writer

AUGUST 17, 2026 AT 1:14 AM

Ricardo Hausmann, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former Venezuelan government minister, authored the article criticizing President Trump’s tariff policies. However, according to reporting by the New York Post, the piece has since been flagged for its conspicuously artificial writing style and heavy reliance on AI tools.

The Financial Times was compelled to append an editorial note to the top of the article following its Thursday publication. The disclaimer states that AI was employed to condense a longer draft prior to the newspaper’s editorial review, a practice that directly violates the publication’s editorial code of conduct.

Social media users quickly identified the suspicious prose, with one X user describing it as the worst AI slop I’ve seen in a major publication. Analysis using Pangram, an AI detection tool, reportedly showed that 71% of the 841-word article was AI-generated content.

The controversy has sparked particular concern within academic circles, where professors are simultaneously combating students’ increasing dependence on artificial intelligence for coursework. Michael Socolow, a professor at the University of Maine, expressed frustration on social media about the difficulty of encouraging students to write with creativity and individuality when a prominent Harvard economics professor publishes easily identifiable AI-generated content in a major financial newspaper.

Even those familiar with Hausmann’s previous work expressed dismay. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal, who noted he had learned from and enjoyed conversations with the 70-year-old economist in the past, called the incident astonishing in terms of both its writing and publication.

The piece was published behind the Financial Times‘ paywall, adding to the criticism that readers were asked to pay for content that was not authentically written by the credited author.

Neither Hausmann, the Financial Times, nor Harvard Kennedy School provided immediate responses to requests for comment regarding the incident.

With information from New York Post

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe

She was born in 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the granddaughter of an immigrant from Crete who settled in the Greek community of Johannesburg (one of the largest in Africa). She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg and a master’s degree in Journalism from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She began her career at English-language media outlets in Johannesburg, covering politics and economics, with a focus on issues related to migration and the diaspora. She moved to Athens in 2015 to “return to her roots,” initially to pursue graduate studies, and has remained there permanently. She is married to an Afrikaner; they have two children and live in the southern suburbs of Athens.