Stanford University has apologized after admitting it used artificial intelligence to alter a promotional photo, swapping a Hispanic male student for a black female and slimming down the appearance of two other students pictured — a white male and an Asian female.
A Stanford spokesperson told NBC News the university has apologized directly to the students whose images were changed or removed. “Not only the fact that the image was altered, but the ways in which it was altered, reflect a serious error in judgment,” the spokesperson said.
“Quite simply, this was wrong and should never have happened,” the spokesperson added, noting the university has opened an investigation aimed at establishing “protocols to prevent it from happening again.”
The altered image was produced by Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises and had been displayed on welcome banners across campus in Santa Clara County. Those banners have since been taken down.
Garret Molloy, editor-in-chief of the Stanford Review, which first reported the incident, told NBC News he believes the university was “trying to create this kind of artificial perception of diversity.”
“In the past, we did that with college photographers going around campus and trying to find a diverse friend group,” Molloy said. “Those college photographers are now being replaced with AI.”
Billy Ramirez, the male student who was digitally removed from the photograph, described the experience to the Stanford Review.
“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,” Ramirez said.
The episode has drawn widespread criticism on social media, with commentators pointing to it as an example of institutional efforts to manufacture diversity imagery through technology rather than reflect the actual student body.
