Dartmouth provost resigns after review finds undisclosed AI use in his writing

Dartmouth College Provost Santiago Schnell resigned on Wednesday, Oct. 28, after a faculty-led committee found he used artificial intelligence in his writing without proper disclosure, according to the Valley News. President Sian Leah Beilock announced the move in an email to the campus community.

The case matters because Dartmouth presents itself as a leader on AI. It also affects students and faculty, who have been asking what rules apply to the university's own leaders.

What the committee found

Beilock formed the committee on Sept. 25, after news reports questioned Schnell's AI use. The Valley News report, republished by NHPR, says the committee's report is dated Oct. 27.

The committee found that Schnell "used AI to meaningfully alter his writing in violation of at least one publication's AI use and/or disclosure requirement." It also found he fell short of Dartmouth's ethics and professionalism standards, the Valley News reported.

The committee said it did not use AI detection tools. Instead, it reviewed Schnell's logs from Dartmouth's enterprise version of Claude, plus his emails. The report did not recommend disciplinary action, according to the same account.

According to the report, Schnell has published at least 30 pieces since joining Dartmouth in July 2025. Given the short timeline, the committee focused on a handful.

The journal paper

In one journal paper, the committee found Schnell used Claude to "substantially edit his research manuscript, troubleshoot errors in computer code, and generate figures." The journal required disclosure of that kind of use, and he did not disclose it, the Valley News reported.

Schnell told Beilock in a Sept. 22 email that he had relied on older author instructions. The committee said the publisher has required AI disclosure since at least 2023.

The Washington Post column

Schnell told Semafor he used ChatGPT "to refine a few arguments, check for grammatical errors, and submit it to the Washington Post." The committee called that a "clear violation" of the newspaper's policy, according to the NHPR republication.

A forthcoming article

For a forthcoming article, Schnell uploaded his manuscript to Claude. He asked whether it had many signatures of AI writing, the committee said. He later submitted a version with the kinds of changes Claude suggested.

When the journal's editor asked about AI use, Schnell said he did not understand that this type of editing required disclosure. The committee said that description "understates the nature of the Provost's actual AI use." It found no violation in a fourth paper, which he co-authored.

Limits of the review

The committee said Schnell did not fully cooperate. He provided his Dartmouth-issued laptop. He did not, on request, provide logs from the personal AI accounts he used for academic and public writing.

Schnell did not respond to the Valley News's request for comment on Wednesday. Dartmouth's media relations office had not responded when the paper published.

How the story began

Semafor first raised the issue in August. According to Inside Higher Ed, Semafor reported that the AI detector Pangram flagged his Aug. 9 Washington Post piece as at least 80% AI generated. Fox News describes the Semafor finding as 100%. The outlets differ on that figure.

Inside Higher Ed also reports that the student newspaper The Dartmouth ran its own Pangram analysis. It said the tool rated Schnell's work as 96% AI-written across nine professional articles published this year. AI detectors are widely considered unreliable, and the committee did not rely on them.

Schnell admitted using AI. He told the student paper it did not "substitute" for his "research, intellectual judgment or authorship," Inside Higher Ed reported. Students and faculty argued he had broken the honor code and should be fired.

The resignation came less than two weeks before a planned faculty no-confidence vote, according to Inside Higher Ed.

What Dartmouth said

Beilock wrote in her message: "Out of respect for his colleagues and the institution, Santiago has resigned as provost and is leaving the university." She added: "This was his decision." The memo is posted on the president's website.

She also wrote that leaders must "model the transparency and human judgment that we expect from our students and scholars." The Boston Globe reports that Beilock did not say whether Schnell's AI use was right or wrong. It adds that he resigned both as provost and as a professor of math and biology.

What happens next

History professor Matthew Delmont will serve as interim provost through June 2028, according to the Valley News. Inside Higher Ed describes him as an associate dean of faculty.

Dartmouth is not stepping back from AI. Beilock said that keeping the university at the forefront of AI means leading through a fast-changing environment, Inside Higher Ed reported. The university hosts a conference titled "AI at 70: What Must Remain Human?" later this week.

The committee's eight-page report is available on the president's site.