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Stanford Pulls Banners Featuring Student with AI-Edited Ethnicity, Gender
Stanford said the edits violated its AI policy and removed the banners after the altered image spread online.
- Stanford University acknowledged Tuesday that artificial intelligence was used to alter a photograph of three students for promotional materials, replacing a white male student with a Black woman and making two other students appear thinner.
- The controversy erupted Monday after The Stanford Review, an independent student publication, reported that Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises had used AI to alter the photo; Billy Ramirez discovered the alteration when a friend sent him a side-by-side comparison while driving back to campus.
- Ramirez initially found the alteration "hilarious that they changed his race and gender," but upon reflection felt "silenced and erased" from a portrayal meant to represent him, noting that AI tools like Claude have grown in use over his four years at Stanford.
- Stanford removed the promotional banners and committed to working with Residential and Dining Enterprises to provide additional training; the comparison images spread rapidly across Fizz, X, Instagram and TikTok after Ramirez posted them online.
- The incident emerges amid significant shifts in Stanford's racial enrollment following the Supreme Court's 2023 affirmative action ruling, with Black student enrollment falling from 8.9% to 4.5%, while the altered banner echoes a 26-year-old Onion satire titled 'Black Guy Photoshopped In.
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Stanford Receives Backlash For Replacing Latino Student In Photo With AI-Generated Black Student
Stanford University acknowledged that a photo featured on a banner in its dining hall had been altered using AI to replace a Latino student with a Black woman who may have been AI-generated, while two other students appeared air-brushed.
Palo Alto Online+3 Reposted by 3 other sources
Stanford admits to using AI to transform man into woman in campus ad
Stanford University takes pride in being on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, but the university has been facing unwanted scrutiny this week after a Stanford advertisement relied on AI to transform a man into a woman, in violation of its own policies.
Coverage Details
Total News Sources54
Leaning Left12Leaning Right22Center9Last UpdatedBias Distribution51% Right
Bias Distribution
- 51% of the sources lean Right
51% Right
L 28%
C 21%
R 51%
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