Billy Ramirez AI image incident — Sep 2024

Stanford University recently removed campus welcome banners after it was discovered that AI tools were used to alter promotional imagery. The banners, which featured a group of students, were doctored to replace a Latino senior named Billy Ramirez with a fictitious Black woman, while other students in the same photo had their faces edited to appear slimmer.

What happened

The incident surfaced in September 2024 when an independent student newspaper, The Stanford Review, reported the discrepancy. The original photograph was taken during a Lunar New Year event at Wilbur Dining Hall during the student's freshman year and had previously appeared on university websites. After a friend sent a side-by-side comparison to Ramirez, he shared the discovery online, causing the images to spread rapidly across social media platforms including X, Instagram, and TikTok.

Stanford officials acknowledged that the use of AI in this context violated university policy, which expressly prohibits using generative tools to alter images of university people, events, or facilities. The administration stated that both the unauthorized alteration and the lack of disclosure regarding the image were policy breaches. In response, the university removed the banners and initiated coordination with the office of Residential and Dining Enterprises to implement additional training and ensure stricter review processes for all future promotional materials.

Ramirez expressed disappointment regarding the university's decision to fabricate the diversity of its student body through AI. The incident occurred during a period of shifting enrollment demographics at the university following the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. While the university has committed to reviewing its practices, the event has prompted broader discussions about the ethics of using AI to curate institutional identity.