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Dartmouth provost Santiago Schnell resigns after committee finds undisclosed AI use

A Dartmouth committee found that Santiago Schnell used AI in ways that violated publication rules and fell short of the college’s ethics and professionalism standards. The Washington Post reported that Schnell resigned over AI use.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 4 outlets' reporting · Article text read from 2 of 4 outletsHow it's made

View timeline · 9 entries
4 outletsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Mostly CenterL 1 · C 2 · R 0 · 1 unrated
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Updat3 graphic · Map data: Natural Earth Natural Earth (public domain)

What happened

Key facts

  • Dartmouth Provost Santiago Schnell resigned and is leaving the university after a faculty-led committee found he used AI in his writing without properly disclosing it.
  • President Sian Leah Beilock announced the resignation in an email to the campus community and said it was Schnell’s decision.
  • The committee reviewed Schnell’s logs from Dartmouth’s enterprise AI tool, Claude, and his emails; it said it did not use AI detection tools.
  • The committee said Schnell had published at least 30 pieces since joining Dartmouth in July 2025 and focused on a handful of them.

The brief

A Dartmouth committee found that Santiago Schnell used AI in ways that violated publication rules and fell short of the college’s ethics and professionalism standards. The Washington Post reported that Schnell resigned over AI use. Dartmouth had named Schnell, the Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, as its next provost.

The committee’s report, dated Oct. 27, said Schnell meaningfully changed his writing with AI in violation of at least one publication’s AI-use or disclosure requirements. It also found that he failed to disclose AI use in breach of a national newspaper’s stated policy and was not forthcoming about his use of the technology.

The committee’s review followed news coverage questioning Schnell’s AI use, including a Semafor report about AI-written opinion pieces that identified his Washington Post column. The committee said it did not use AI detection tools in reaching its conclusions. The Dartmouth reported that Pangram flagged Schnell’s Aug.

9 Washington Post column as “100% AI-written”; Semafor also reported that Pangram result. That detection result is distinct from the committee’s stated process: the committee said it did not rely on AI detection tools. Schnell told Semafor that he used a chatbot to refine some arguments, check for grammatical errors and submit the column to The Washington Post.

The Washington Post spokesperson told Semafor that its authors must confirm their submissions were not created or altered using AI or editing software. The committee characterized Schnell’s use as a clear breach of the newspaper’s policy. The coverage also describes a separate disclosure issue involving ChemSystemsChem.

The Dartmouth reported that the journal had required authors to disclose AI use since at least 2023, citing the committee’s report. It said Schnell disclosed his ChatGPT use in an Oct. 6 email to the journal but did not disclose his use of Claude. The committee’s wider conclusion concerned publication requirements as well as Dartmouth’s standards.

The events leading to the committee’s review included an email Schnell sent to Dartmouth president Beilock on Sept. 22, in which he said he had relied on older author instructions. Beilock formed the committee on Sept. 25 after reports raised questions about Schnell’s AI use.

The Washington Post and Inside Higher Ed headlines both reported his resignation over the issue, while the committee report supplies the findings behind the controversy.

Why it matters

  • Schnell’s appointment as Dartmouth’s next provost was directly affected: the Washington Post reported his resignation, and the committee found he fell short of Dartmouth’s ethics and professionalism standards.
  • The Washington Post’s author-confirmation policy required authors to attest that submissions were not created or manipulated with AI or editing software; the committee found Schnell’s conduct violated a national newspaper’s stated policy.
  • ChemSystemsChem’s disclosure requirements, which the committee said had been in place since at least 2023, are relevant to the committee’s finding that Schnell disclosed ChatGPT use but not Claude use.
  • Pangram’s “100% AI-written” result was reported for Schnell’s column, but the committee said it did not use AI detection tools, distinguishing the detection claim from the basis of its own findings.

What to watch next

  • Whether Dartmouth announces a decision about filling the provost role Schnell had been named to.
  • Whether Dartmouth takes any further action in light of the committee’s finding that Schnell fell short of its ethics and professionalism standards.
  • Whether ChemSystemsChem addresses the reported gap between Schnell’s disclosure of ChatGPT use and his undisclosed use of Claude.
  • Whether The Washington Post or other publications announce any further action concerning their AI-use or disclosure policies.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
4 source articles · 4 unique outlets
Outlet political mix: Mostly Center· 1 Left · 2 Center · 1 unrated
Where the outlets are based: Unknown 75% · US/Canada 25%
Outlet political mix
Mostly Center
Left
Center
Right
1 outlet
2 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
4 unique outletsDominant coverage: US/Canada
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in Unknown (3 of 4 geographically-identified sources).
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

2 framing differences · 3 uncorroborated claims · 3 information gaps
The reports repeat the same account with different emphasis; its central claims are not independently confirmed in the reporting Updat3 read.Compared across 2 reports whose article text Updat3 read; 2 other outlets were checked by headline only.
Framing / emphasis differences
Sources emphasise different angles, actors or consequences of the same reporting.
  • The Dartmouth foregrounds the ChemSystemsChem disclosure issue, including the reported omission of Claude use; VNews gives more detail on the committee’s findings and its conclusion that Schnell was not forthcoming.
  • The Dartmouth and Semafor report Pangram’s “100% AI-written” result for the column, while VNews notes that the committee did not use AI detection tools.
Updat3: These are differences of emphasis, not disputes about what is reported. They do not show that the reported claims are true.
One-sided or uncorroborated claims
Claims that come from one party or one source family and are not independently corroborated.
  • The committee called Schnell’s AI use a “clear violation” of The Washington Post’s AI-use policies, as reported by The Dartmouth.
  • Schnell told Semafor that he used a chatbot to refine arguments, check grammar and submit his column.
  • The committee said it did not use AI detection tools.
Updat3: Not independently corroborated yet — treat as a claim, not an established fact.
Not established by the reporting
Information the available reporting does not contain or confirm. This is a gap, not a disagreement.
  • The sources do not state the terms or effective date of Schnell’s resignation.
  • The sources do not identify who will fill Dartmouth’s provost role.
  • The committee’s report says Schnell violated publication rules and was not forthcoming; Schnell’s account to Semafor describes using a chatbot to refine arguments, check grammar and submit the column.
Updat3: Updat3 cannot conclude anything about this from the current sources.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. John McCarthy and other researchers proposed a summer research project on artificial intelligence at Dartmouth College.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  2. John McCarthy and other researchers organized the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. In scholarly publishing, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ recommendations, first issued in 1978 and revised over subsequent decades, set out standards for authorship and disclosure.
    Background · from our historical context
  4. OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public on November 30, 2022, making chatbot-generated and chatbot-edited prose a prominent concern for newsrooms, universities and academic publishers.
    Background · from our historical context
  5. In January 2023, the journal *Nature* announced that AI tools could not be listed as authors and that researchers should disclose their use of such tools in methods or acknowledgments.
    Background · from our historical context
  6. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) likewise stated in February 2023 that AI tools could not take responsibility for published work and that human authors remained accountable for its accuracy and originality.
    Background · from our historical context
  7. Santiago Schnell joined Dartmouth as provost.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  8. Schnell’s Aug. 9 Washington Post column was flagged as “100% AI-written” by Pangram, according to Semafor and The Dartmouth.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:thedartmouth.com
  9. A Dartmouth committee’s report, dated Oct. 27, found that Schnell used AI to substantially change his writing in violation of at least one publication’s AI-use or disclosure requirement.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:vnews.com

How we got here

Before the committee’s October 2026 report, the immediate event in the dispute was Santiago Schnell’s August 9, 2026, Washington Post column. Schnell later told Semafor that he had used a chatbot to refine arguments, check grammar and submit the column.

The Post’s stated submission rule required authors to confirm that their work had not been created or manipulated using artificial intelligence or editing software.

Original sources

4 articles from 4 outlets

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