The AI Recommendation Letter

You sit on a graduate admissions committee. The admissions officer tells the room that a substantial majority of incoming recommendation letters this cycle show signs of AI assistance — exactly how this was determined is unclear. The committee is debating whether to ignore, flag, or require disclosure for next cycle. After the meeting, a senior faculty member you respect tells you privately that she uses AI for her own letters. The volume of requests, she says, has made the old practice impossible to sustain.