Letter From the Editors: There’s Nothing Artificial About The Argus

Dear Readers,

If you’ll believe it, nothing else but “The Matrix” was on our mind during The Argus’ pre-semester training, as the franchise recently returned to cultural consciousness due to the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. We can’t help but marvel at the curious way “The Matrix” produced noteworthy commentary 20+ years before AI became universally accessible to the public. 

Last week, Jacob Coxon, a former safety researcher from Anthropic, quit over concerns of AI safety and fear that artificial intelligence models may soon escape from human control. Despite this warning and countless others from AI watchdogs and researchers, President Donald Trump has rejected calls to regulate the industry.

On an environmental scale, there continue to be growing concerns about data centers and their usage of fresh water, especially after this summer was named the hottest summer on record in the United States. The continued use of water to cool AI facilities as well as power them threatens to cause droughts, especially in already drought-prone areas along the Colorado River. Arizona, California, and Nevada are already being federally mandated to cut water usage as worries regarding the river continue to increase. 

We’ve seen the effects of AI usage on a smaller scale as well, even here at the University. More and more professors are switching to oral or handwritten exams to combat AI usage on final papers. Every class syllabus now contains an artificial intelligence policy. In his commencement address last semester, Senator Chris Murphy spoke to the class of 2026 about artificial intelligence, noting that “Wesleyan is inefficient, because inefficiency is good, actually.” 

Here at The Argus, we have updated our policies to reflect this brave new world. We’re taking care to make sure that absolutely no artificial intelligence is used in writing our articles. We know that our dedicated staff of section editors, copy editors, and layout editors make sure that each and every word originates from a human source. While we can’t control Google’s AI Overview or avoid AI ads on the subway, we can control the writing that we put out into the world. 

We believe that this is a dual responsibility. Just as we promise to write, entrusting our words to our own consciousness, we believe our readership helps keep authentic writing alive. Reading local news—produced by your tablemate in Espwesso, your TA for a literature class, your next door neighbor who plays their music too loud—is the human alternative to consuming AI-produced media. 

Like Morpheus says in the film, “We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.” But what happens if we get so caught up in artificial intelligence that we forget the significance in the hand-painted portrait, the hand-woven sweater, or, most pertinent, the written word? At The Argus, you can be sure that won’t happen.

As student journalists, we know that the work we put into our paper isn’t in vain. The Argus contributes to the living archive that is the University. The beauty of the paper is that it is able to tell you what a very specific set of Wesleyan students thought at one time or another. Call us crazy, but we have reason to believe that something as small as Pi Cafe changing locations is of vital importance to write about. And we’re pretty happy with being inefficient. Our five rounds of edits (minimum!) and long production nights can tell you that. Our twice-weekly printed paper is proudly a labor of love. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Always Yours,

Henry Kaplan & Julia Podgorski

Editors-in-Chief

Henry Kaplan can be reached at hrkaplan@wesleyan.edu.

Julia Podgorski can be reached at jpodgorski@wesleyan.edu.