Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises is being accused of using artificial intelligence to alter the race and gender of a student in one of its ads.
The before-and-after photos were obtained by the student-run newspaper, The Stanford Review, showing three smiling students holding plates of food in the cafeteria. The shock came when observing the altered image, where one of the people pictured had been swapped out with a black woman.
Look:
JUST IN: Stanford University is accused of using AI to change students’ race & gender while making others appear thinner in advertising, with one student saying he felt “silenced & erased.” pic.twitter.com/ziQe70PTek
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) September 21, 2026
“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,” said junior Billy Ramirez. “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.”
“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,” he added.
It was also noted that the asian female student had her face visibly slimmed down in the “after” image, and the male student in the middle had his smile artificially altered.
X users reacted:
They made the Asian skinnier and turned the Latino into a black woman. Looks like they airbrushed the white guy. Why?
— Ockham (@OckhamUSA) September 21, 2026
Stanford has thousands of students to pick from. They can find people for their brochure without editing people’s races, genders, and weights. The affected students have an easy lawsuit against the school.
— Andy froemel (@FroemelAndy) September 21, 2026
Stanford has a sub-4% acceptance rate, and even the kids in the brochure couldn’t get in.
— (@full_kelly_) September 21, 2026
Apparently they also thought the Asian girl was too ugly so they had to fix her up…
— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) September 22, 2026
They looksmaxxed the Asian girl and the white dude too.
They were like “hell naw these kids ain’t going to appear on our ideal ad looking like THAT”
— Risu_Ekorn (@Risu_Ekorn) September 22, 2026
I feel worst for the Asian girl here. The AI image of the white guy is basically handsome-fied version of his face, but you can still kind recognize him. The Asian girl had her face swapped out for basically a K-pop idol face. That can’t be great for her self-esteem.
— MoLewis57 (@MoLewis57) September 21, 2026
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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