Stanford busted using AI to race swap white male student for black female in ad: ‘Silenced and erased’

Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises used AI to race- and gender-swap students who had been photographed for its advertisements — and even alter their appearances by slimming down their faces.

Student-run newspaper The Stanford Review obtained before and after photos, one showing an original, untouched image of students holding up plates of food in the cafeteria. A student featured in the unaltered photo said he was surprised to see he had been replaced with a black woman in the finished version.

“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, a junior, told the outlet.

An original, pre-AI photograph shows Stanford student Billy Ramirez, left, and other students. Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises recently used artificial intelligence to alter the races, genders, and physical appearances of the students in its advertisements, including replacing Ramirez with an AI-generated image of a black woman. Instagram/stanforddining

“At first, I found it hilarious that they had used AI to completely change our appearances, including my race and gender. 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,” he said.

“Seeing my identity changed and being left out of the picture made me feel, in a way, silenced and erased from a representation that was supposed to include me.”

The altered Stanford photo with the race swap. The Stanford Review

Two other students featured in the photo with Ramirez also had their image manipulated by AI, their faces visibly slimmed-down in the final photo.

SR&DE oversees housing and resident dining hall operations for the elite Bay Area university’s more than 18,000 students.