Stanford caught in 'perfect storm' over fabricated diversity photo

Stanford University is facing backlash after one of its offices used artificial intelligence to replace a Latino student with a Black woman in a campus dining ad photograph, CNN reported Friday.

The original 2024 photo showed biology major Billy Ramirez eating with two other students. But an altered version that appeared on a Stanford banner last week replaced Ramirez and also changed the other students’ features.

“I did feel pretty upset with the actions of the university,” Ramirez told CNN. “It’s more about my Latino identity kind of being erased, and I pride myself in being Mexican.”

The Stanford Review, an independent student newspaper, first exposed the altered image.

“I think this story was a perfect storm of abuse of AI, questions around diversity policies in universities,” editor-in-chief Garret Molloy said in a CNN interview.

“It’s kind of unacceptable,” a student told the network. “They have diversity. They shouldn’t need to fabricate it.”

Stanford acknowledged that the image violated its rules and said the banners had been removed

“Stanford's AI policy is clear: the use of AI in producing or altering images of Stanford people, events, research facilities, or achievements is strictly prohibited,” a university spokesperson said.

Ramirez said Stanford should use the controversy as an opportunity to improve representation.

“If you pride yourself so much in diversity, but you have to swap a student who's Hispanic into another race and gender to kind of showcase to the world it’s diverse,” he said. “Well, actually, like, you need to take action.”