Stanford R&DE Used AI to Change Students' Race in Its Ads

Stanford's Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) used generative AI to alter the appearance of students in its advertising, including their race, gender and body proportions. The edits came to light after students compared a campus banner with the original photographs, according to a report by the Stanford Review.

What students saw in the banner

Billy Ramirez ’27, a Stanford student, said a friend sent him the banner image while he was driving back to campus. He recognised the picture — he recalled a Stanford photographer taking it — but he was no longer in it. In the edited version, Ramirez had been removed and replaced by an AI-generated Black woman.

“At first, I found it hilarious that they had used AI to completely change our appearances, including my race and gender,” Ramirez told 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. 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 was not the only student affected. According to the Review, the two students standing to his right were distorted as well and appear visibly thinner in the retouched image.

Reaction on campus

The incident drew thousands of reactions on Fizz, the anonymous social app widely used on campus, where the before-and-after comparison circulated among students. The Review notes that the story was met with humour, but argues it points to what the paper describes as persisting ideological and racial preferences inside Stanford's administration.

Why it matters

Generative editing tools now make it easy for marketing teams to redraw a photograph: faces, skin tone and body proportions can be changed in minutes, often without the subjects' knowledge. The Review writes that R&DE likely assumed the changes were subtle enough to pass unnoticed, and says it will keep monitoring the department's advertising and its use of generative AI.