BiasMedium
Stanford University Acknowledged Using AI to Alter Student Photo for Campus Banners, Replacing Hispanic Student With Black Woman
- Occurred
- Sep 21, 2026
- Published
- Sep 22, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Stanford University acknowledged using AI to alter a 2024 student photograph for campus banners in September 2026. The altered image replaced Hispanic student Billy Ramirez with a Black woman and made two other students appear thinner. Ramirez said being "erased" was upsetting and frustrating. Stanford said the alteration and lack of disclosure violated its AI policy and later said it was removing the banners.
Developers
- Synthetic image generation technology developers
- Synthetic media generation technology developers
Deployers
- Stanford University
- Universities
- Educational communities
- Synthetic media creators
- Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises
Harmed parties
- Billy Ramirez
- University students
- Students
- Educational communities
- Two unnamed Stanford University students whose appearances were altered
- Epistemic integrity
- Privacy
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: AI altered student photo to replace Hispanic student with Black woman, causing harm and violating policy.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8