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 student, who may have been AI-generated, while two other students appeared air-brushed.
The original photo was taken at a Stanford dining hall in 2024 and showed three students, including Billy Ramirez, a Latino student who was later removed from the image. As the Stanford Review reports, the altered version appeared on a “Welcome Home” banner at the university, with a Black woman, whom the paper says was AI-generated, inserted in Ramirez’s place.
The other two students’ features, an Asian woman and a Latino man, were also noticeably altered or “Al-yassified,” as Ramirez later called it on social media.
Students quickly recognized that the image had been manipulated, which Ramirez shared on social media. The comparison between the original and altered versions spread across Fizz, a popular social media platform for college campuses that launched at Stanford in 2024.
Ramirez told the Review that while he initially found the changes absurd, he became upset after comparing the two versions.
“At first, I found it hilarious that they had used AI to completely change our appearances, including my race and gender,” Ramirez said, speaking to the Review. “But after looking at the comparison, I was also upset because I don’t agree with Stanford making those choices about how we were represented.”
According to the New York Times, Stanford acknowledged Tuesday that its Residential and Dining Enterprises department had used AI to alter the photograph. The university said its AI policy prohibits using AI to produce or alter images of Stanford people, events, research, facilities, or achievements, and that both the alteration and failure to disclose it violated that policy.
Stanford said it is working with Residential and Dining Enterprises on additional training and a review process for future materials.
The incident comes as colleges and universities are facing increased scrutiny over diversity-related programs and marketing, including amid actions by the Trump administration targeting some university practices. The Times reports that Stanford has also been the subject of federal inquiries involving its medical school admissions practices and a teacher training program.
Out of the 17,314 students who enrolled last fall, 3,406 were classified by the university as underrepresented minorities. An additional 4,431 students were international students.
Per the Times, a 2013 study in the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education found that college recruitment materials often featured a higher proportion of Black students than were actually enrolled at the schools studied, while Hispanic students were underrepresented.
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