Dartmouth Provost Santiago Schnell resigns over AI writing allegations

Santiago Schnell has resigned from his position as Provost at Dartmouth College following findings by a faculty committee that he used artificial intelligence to shape his writing. The controversy centered on a guest column Schnell authored for The Washington Post regarding AI cheating, which was identified as being entirely written by AI after being processed through a filter by the news outlet Semafor.

While Schnell previously defended his use of ChatGPT as a tool to refine arguments, subsequent investigations by the college newspaper, The Dartmouth, detected high rates of AI use in his recent publications. This departure occurs as the university, which claims to be the birthplace of AI research, hosts a conference titled “What Must Remain Human?” to mark the 70th anniversary of the field.

Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock stated that leaders must model the transparency and human judgment expected of students. She noted that Schnell’s departure was his own decision.