Stanford University is under fire after the university used artificial intelligence to change both the race and sex of students who had been photographed in an advertisement for the school’s dining hall.
AI was also used to alter the students’ appearance, including by making their faces narrower, the New York Post writes.
The image was displayed on banners around the university to advertise the dining hall.
The scandal began when the student newspaper The Stanford Review obtained before-and-after images. The original image shows three students holding up plates of food in the university’s dining hall.
One of the students in the original image, Billy Ramirez, was surprised when he discovered that he had been replaced by a black woman in the finished version.
Ramirez told The Stanford Review that a friend sent him images showing the difference between the original and the advertisement.
The image is unclear, as this is the only available example of the AI-generated image.
At first, Ramirez found it amusing that Stanford had used AI to change his appearance completely, including both his race and sex.
After looking more closely at the images, however, he was also upset that the university had made such choices on his behalf.
– I do not agree with Stanford making such choices about how we are to be portrayed, Ramirez said.
– Seeing my identity altered while at the same time being removed from the image made me feel, in a way, erased and silenced from a representation that was actually supposed to include me.
Two other students who appeared in the original image also had their appearance altered by AI. Their faces are noticeably narrower in the finished version.
It was employees at Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises who altered the image using AI. They are responsible for housing and students’ dining services at the university, which has more than 18,000 students.
Exposed and harassed
The two other students have now spoken publicly, The Stanford Daily writes. They have chosen to remain anonymous because of what they describe as ongoing harassment.
In a statement published on Substack, they write that they were initially shocked by the image, but that they did nothing about the matter because they were occupied with their own lives and commitments.
After the case received extensive national attention, however, they say that the situation became difficult to ignore.
– We felt embarrassed by how our ethnic facial features were altered, and by the comments we saw online, they write.
The two students were pictured together with Billy Ramirez outside Wilbur Dining. In the AI-manipulated version, one student’s clothing was also changed to Stanford clothing.
The students have now filed a discrimination report under Title VI and have been in contact with Jay Hamilton, vice provost for undergraduate education. They say that they have not yet heard from Stanford President Jonathan Levin.
Among other things, they are demanding a public apology, a thorough investigation into how the image was created, and that the university should not create AI-generated images of students.
The students object to Ramirez having been replaced by a black woman in order to create a more ‘diverse’ image. They believe this shows how black students are used as a marketing tool.
At the same time, they are demanding more DEI at Stanford. Ironically, the case demonstrates precisely the downside of this kind of DEI, in which the desire to portray diversity ends up altering and erasing the actual students.
Stanford apologises
Stanford has admitted that the image was manipulated using AI, in violation of the university’s own rules.
The university acknowledges that both the manipulation and the failure to label it were breaches of the rules, and has apologised to the students.
Stanford has opened an investigation and announced additional training and oversight procedures, but has so far remained silent about who was behind the alteration, which AI tool was used or why the original image was changed.
The case also raises questions about the students’ consent to how they are portrayed.
Zachary Henderson, a professor of law at SMU Dedman School of Law, tells ABC News that the students whose faces and body shapes were altered may ask themselves what consent they actually gave, and whether they feel harmed by the way they were portrayed.
ABC News: Students were outraged after Stanford University used AI to change race in an image.
