The AI Revolution
Thank you for the recent article on artificial intelligence [“The Revolution Is Here,” September/October]. AI represents not an explosion of knowledge but an explosion of access to knowledge. The focus then shifts from knowledge to the user of knowledge. I suggest two questions to evaluate the work of the user: Is it original and is it beneficial to others? Both are things that humans can do and AI cannot do.
Every student paper, every course, and the mission of Dartmouth can use those two criteria. Each student paper could be required to show how it is original and beneficial to others. Two great thinkers illuminate the two criteria: Alfred North Whitehead on originality and Teilhard de Chardin on beneficence.
KARL YOUNG ’62
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
I use AI every day (Perplexity and DeepSeek) to find answers on everything from nuclear physics to the phone number of my doctor. It’s great. My biggest concerns are fake pictures and speeches that pretend to be real. I can be skeptical of what AI says about nuclear physics and think for myself as to whether I believe it.
I find out quickly about wrong phone numbers. Fake pictures and fake speeches are another story and shouldn’t be used in the classroom. Also, Dartmouth should see that every graduate can think and write for herself or himself. This probably means not using AI to write papers, lab reports, etc., but students should be able to look things up using AI.
RALPH LACHENMAIER ’63, Th’64, Th’69
Ridgecrest, California
Dartmouth should see that every graduate can think and write for herself or himself. This probably means not using AI to write papers, lab reports, etc., but students should be able to look things up using AI.”
—RALPH LACHENMAIER ’63, Th’64, Th’69
AI is a danger that must be deeply considered now, as the time window for resolution has already begun to close. Academia must soon be in a well-researched position to present itself as the alternative to AI, its regulation, or its immediate restriction. AI has already been compared to the atomic bomb, with consequences of use leading as far as the destruction of life on Earth. It can create technological robots capable of learning quickly how to work together in competition with man and capable of replacing and destroying man with his own tools, e.g. atomic, toxic, or bio warfare.
Research in Singapore has managed to mix nerve cells from human stem cells in replicating neurotechnology—the means for use in producing the tools for AI production, the “brains” of AI. We’re already this close to decision-making robots using “human” thought processes and tools and weapons. Testing in Singapore shows that this use of human stem cells as “brain and nerve system cells” in AI saves electricity and water—ergo cheaper data centers, cheaper robots.
ROBERT J. GREGG ’55
Frankfurt, Germany
Moral Leadership and AI
Scott Brown ’78 is right that AI could dramatically widen America’s socioeconomic divide [“Dartmouth and the Growing Economic Divide,” DAM online, August], but his essay underestimates the larger challenge. Unchecked AI threatens not just wealth and employment but also human judgment, information ecosystems, original thought, and control over autonomous systems. Brown calls for making the “moral and ethical use of AI” core to a Dartmouth education yet leaves that vision abstract. Would it be a required course, faculty training, departmental integration? He doesn’t say. Nor does he acknowledge Dartmouth’s current groundwork—including its faculty leadership group or the Tucker Center and Center for Social Impact, whose ethical missions should complement these efforts.
Most strikingly, the College’s enterprise partnership with Anthropic presents an immediate case study: Works by more than 130 faculty members were involved in landmark class-action copyright litigation against Anthropic for uncompensated model training. Thus, one challenge is to make the College’s commercial, legal, and intellectual entanglements part of what students learn to critically navigate. Lastly, Brown ignores how Dartmouth has collaborated or can collaborate with other universities to confront the global challenges posed by AI. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment! An ironic admission: In preparing this letter, I employed what Brown advocates for—AI literacy—by engaging ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in research, analysis, and composition.
BILL JARRETT ’77
Danbury, Connecticut
Minority Attorney?
Thank you for the article on Neal Katyal ’91 and his impressive career and principles [“Full Court Press,” July/August]. I’m a “small(er) government” Republican, and he apparently is not. Yet our principles seem to overlap greatly, which is reassuring on many levels. Thank goodness for capable people such as him identifying and buttressing some of our more valuable societal structures. As an important aside about Katyal’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, the author wrote, “He’s since made a 54th, a record for a minority attorney.” What exactly is a minority attorney? This man is an accomplished attorney.
To label him as a “minority” anything, especially in an article about his career and not about his genes, is what we should have moved beyond by now. It is tangential to the article and condescending to him. There’s irony here, too, in the article quoting Martin Luther King Jr., who about six decades ago beseeched us to focus on the content of character. Yet here we are publishing comments about the color of our skin.
RICHARD LEE, Tu’83
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
EDITOR’S NOTE: Katyal cites his record as a minority attorney on his LinkedIn page.
Women Marginalized
After reading a welcome but all-too-brief article on the first class of women at Dartmouth [“The Pioneering Women of ’76,” September/October], I was disappointed by the mere two lines devoted to women’s rugby in [“From Rogues to Respectability,” September/October]. Our 1986 women’s rugby team, a mere 10 years after Dartmouth admitted women, won the Ivy League championship. These athletes and the many other pioneering women of that first decade of coeducation remain a footnote in this issue. I hope that more recent and current women feel less marginalized and more celebrated than women have been at Dartmouth.
RACHEL LEVY ’86
Bronxville, New York
Protecting the Outdoors
It’s nice to read about Tiernan Sittenfeld ’96 [“Call of the Wild,” July/August], following in the steps of Tom Kiernan ’81, another grad quoted in the article who previously was head of the National Parks Conservation Association.
E. TUPPER KINDER ’69
Erie, Colorado
Life’s Purpose
Picking up on comments from Annabel Barger ’04 [“Job Hunt Concerns,” Letters, July/August], I offer this famous quotation from Frederick Buechner’s Wishful Thinking, by which I live: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
THADDEUS BENNETT ’76
Easthampton, Massachusetts
CORRECTION: An article on Dartmouth’s rugby team (“From Rogues to Respectability,” September/October) incorrectly stated recent renovations to the Corey Ford Clubhouse were paid for solely with private donations. The College also provided significant funding.
