Dartmouth College Provost Santiago Schnell has resigned after a faculty committee found that he used artificial intelligence to shape his writing, including a guest column in The Washington Post about AI cheating.
The Hanover university announced Schnell’s departure Wednesday as colleges continue to address how artificial intelligence is changing assignments, academic work and expectations for students and faculty. University President Sian Leah Beilock said the departure was Schnell’s decision.
“That is why, as leaders, it is so critical that we model the transparency and human judgment that we expect from our students and scholars.”
Beilock made the comment in a written statement about Dartmouth’s approach to artificial intelligence. She also said that keeping the university at the forefront of the field requires “leading through an environment that is fluid and fast-changing,” and said Dartmouth wishes Schnell well.
Questions about published writing
Concerns about Schnell’s writing emerged after Semafor used an artificial-intelligence filter to examine guest columns published in major newspapers. Schnell’s August column in The Washington Post, titled “Universities are fighting AI cheating. But there’s a deeper problem,” was found to have been entirely written by artificial intelligence.
Schnell defended his use of the technology at the time, saying he used ChatGPT to “refine a few arguments” but that the column reflected his own thinking. The Dartmouth, the college’s student newspaper, subsequently examined other publications by Schnell with an AI detector.
The newspaper’s review found that writing Schnell produced before ChatGPT’s public release in 2022 was identified as human-written, while his more recent writing showed high rates of artificial-intelligence use. In an email to The Dartmouth last month, Schnell said he used AI for several parts of the writing process:
- Language refinement and copyediting
- Improving clarity and organization
- Making writing processes more efficient
Schnell referred questions about his resignation and the faculty committee’s findings to his attorneys. They did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Dartmouth’s history with artificial intelligence
Dartmouth describes itself as the birthplace of artificial intelligence. The university says the field began there in 1956, when a small group of scientists gathered in Hanover for a summer research project focused on the topic.
A conference marking the 70th anniversary of that project began Thursday at Dartmouth. Titled “What Must Remain Human?,” the conference comes as the university and other colleges consider how artificial intelligence should be used in teaching, writing and research.
