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Dartmouth Provost Resigns Amid AI Writing Controversy
· Confirmed
In Short: Santiago Schnell resigned as Dartmouth's provost after an investigation found he extensively used AI in his writings.
Santiago Schnell, Dartmouth College's provost, resigned on October 28, 2026, following an investigation into his use of artificial intelligence (AI) in his writings. The resignation came after Schnell faced allegations of using AI to a significant extent in his work, including academic papers and op-eds for various newspapers.
The controversy began when The Dartmouth reported that Schnell's writings had been flagged by Pangram as '100% AI-written.' The investigation, which reviewed writings Schnell authored since joining Dartmouth in July 2025, found that he had used AI extensively in his work. According to the student newspaper, Pangram determined that Schnell’s work was 96 percent 'AI-written' across the nine professional articles he published that year, including the Post essay and two academic papers about mathematics.
Schnell acknowledged using chatbots to refine arguments and check for grammatical errors, but claimed ultimate authorship over his manuscripts. He stated that he used AI 'for language refinement, copyediting, improving clarity and organization and making writing processes more efficient.' However, Schnell's statement to The Dartmouth, which claimed AI was merely an assistive tool, was itself flagged as 100 percent AI-written, adding an ironic twist to the scandal.
The investigation found that Schnell did not make it easy for the committee to investigate his AI use; the report uses the term 'insufficient cooperation.' He did turn over his Dartmouth laptop but did not provide logs from his personal LLM accounts related to the writings in question. The committee also used 'available records' of Schnell’s communications with peers and reviewers regarding his AI use, in addition to his chat history with Dartmouth Claude enterprise.
Schnell’s resignation came less than two weeks before he was set to face a no-confidence vote from faculty leaders. Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said in a statement that Schnell had resigned out of respect for his colleagues and the institution. Beilock added that the provost position will temporarily be held by Matthew Delmont through June 2028.
In a statement to The Dartmouth, Schnell acknowledged that he should have disclosed his use of AI in his public writing and be attentive to the expectations of AI use set by publications. He wrote, 'I regard these technologies as assistive tools, but they are no substitute for my research, intellectual judgment, or authorship.'
The scandal has raised questions about academic integrity and the transparency of AI use in scholarly work. Dartmouth, which has a long history in AI research, is now facing a significant challenge in balancing the use of AI with academic standards.
Background
Santiago Schnell, Dartmouth College's provost, resigned on October 28, 2026, following an investigation into his use of artificial intelligence (AI) in his writings.
What's confirmed
- Schnell didn’t make it especially easy for the committee to investigate his AI use; the report uses the term “insufficient cooperation.” He did turn over his Dartmouth laptop, but he did not turn over logs from his personal LLM accounts related to the writings in question.
- Santiago Schnell, a Catholic scholar and emerging leader in the push to reform U.S. higher education, has resigned as provost of Dartmouth College following an investigation into his use of artificial intelligence (AI) in published articles.
- Dartmouth will have an interim provost through 2028, Beilock said.
- “Out of respect for his colleagues and the institution, Santiago has resigned as provost and is leaving the university.” His resignation comes less than two weeks before he was set to face a no-confidence vote from faculty leaders.
- Santiago Schnell has resigned as provost of the College and is “leaving the university,” College President Sian Leah Beilock wrote in an email statement to campus this afternoon.
- The committee also used “available records” of Schnell’s communications with peers and reviewers regarding his AI use, in addition to his chat history with Dartmouth Claude enterprise.
- Santiago Schnell resigned as Dartmouth's provost after an investigation found he used AI extensively in his writings.
- Schnell told the paper in an email last month that he uses AI for "language refinement, copyediting, improving clarity and organization and making writing processes more efficient."
What's still developing
- “If students at Dartmouth used AI to write an entire paper without acknowledgement and then submitted it to their professor, they would be in clear violation of the Academic Honor Principle,” Moyse wrote.
- “I am fully responsible for any text under my signature,” he asserted.
- “It just goes against all the values of our institution and the concept of academia,” Eli Moyse, a Dartmouth senior studying government and creative writing, said in an interview with the Times.
- Seventy years later, Dartmouth is hosting a conference called “What Must Remain Human?” that will feature a student hackathon sponsored by Anthropic and speakers like Mira Murati and Yann LeCun.
- He called the situation a “completely cartoonish” display of “hypocrisy.” The school’s provost, Santiago Schnell, faced allegations of AI use last week from the college’s student-run newspaper, which detected AI in some of his published writing.
- Schnell had publicly warned about the challenges AI presents to higher education, making the findings an especially difficult test of Dartmouth's own approach to academic integrity.
- The Dartmouth College provost has resigned after an independent faculty-led committee found his "statements and disclosures about his AI use fall demonstrably short of the standards."