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Stanford Uses AI to Alter Student Photo, Replacing Hispanic Male with Black Woman
By Drooid · · How we work
AI-Edited Campus Advertisement Sparks Outcry
Stanford University’s Residential & Dining Enterprises released promotional banners that featured a photograph of three students holding plates of food. In the final version, the original Hispanic male student was replaced by an AI-generated Black woman, and the other two students’ faces were visibly slimmed. The alteration was discovered after The Stanford Review published side-by-side comparisons of the original and edited images. The university later confirmed that artificial intelligence had been employed to make the changes.
Alterations Made to the Photo
The AI process swapped the race and gender of the male student, inserted a Black female figure in his place, and reduced the apparent width of the remaining students’ faces. The original, unedited picture showed the three students as they posed during a Lunar New Year gathering in 2024. The edited banner was displayed on campus and on Stanford’s dining-service social media channels before the university acknowledged the manipulation.
Stanford’s Policy Violation and Institutional Response
Charlene Gage, the university’s director of public relations, said the alteration and the lack of disclosure breached that policy. The university announced that it would work with Residential & Dining Enterprises to provide additional training and to ensure that all future materials undergo proper review before publication.
Student Reaction
Billy Ramirez, a senior majoring in human biology and a member of the class of 2027, said the change left him feeling “silenced and erased.” He described his initial reaction as a mix of humor and frustration, noting that the alteration was discovered only after a friend sent him the side-by-side images. Ramirez emphasized that the decision to modify his likeness was made without his consent.
Verbatim Quotes
- “To see me erased like that so easily was kind of very upsetting,” — Billy Ramirez
- “I was driving to school from my hometown when my friend sent me the images comparing the banner to the original photos, and I was immediately baffled,” — Billy Ramirez (New York Post)
- “Both the alteration and lack of disclosure in this case violate that policy.” — Charlene Gage, Stanford’s director of university public relations