--- title: "Stanford University Caught Using AI to Create Fake Black Student on Banners Hung Around Campus" description: "Stanford University's dining hall used AI on a photo to replace one of its students with a fake Black woman." date: "2026-09-23" modified: "2026-09-23" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/stanford-ai-fake-black-student" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # Stanford University Caught Using AI to Create Fake Black Student on Banners Hung Around Campus ![A graphic shows an image that Stanford edited to include a nonexistent Black student.]() *Courtesy of Billy Ramirez* Stanford University was caught using AI to swap out a student in a photo and replace him with a Black woman who didn't exist. That edited photo, which shows the students — both the fake one and a pair of real ones — smiling and holding up plates of food, was then plastered around campus to promote the university's dining hall. At first, Billy Ramirez, the student who was edited out of the photo, thought it was "hilarious." But Ramirez, who is Hispanic, soon felt "silenced and erased from a representation that was supposed to include me," he [told *Stanford Review*,]() the student-run newspaper which first reported the astonishing screwup. Race swapping wasn't the only AI alteration in poor taste. The two other students in the photo, a young Asian woman and white man, were essentially yassified to appear thinner and more conventionally attractive. According to [reporting]() by the *San Francisco Chronicle*, the AI-touched-up photo was used in "Welcome Home" banners around the university, but Ramirez said that the posters, which were once "all over campus," are now being taken down. "I love this school, but I don't love when they do things like this," he told the newspaper. Swapping in a fake Black student didn't "reflect reality," he added. "It's not as diverse as they make it out to be." Stanford's Residential & Dining Enterprises department, *SFChronicle* found, has [previously used AI]() to create dining posters promoting different deals. (The over-greebled chow in the posters is an unmistakable telltale of the [horrifying AI food art]() that's been [receiving loads of backlash]() lately.) A Stanford spokesperson confirmed that AI was used to edit the images and that it violated Stanford's AI policies. "The use of AI in producing or altering images of Stanford people, events, research, facilities, or achievements is strictly prohibited," the spokesperson told *SFChronicle*. "Both the alteration and lack of disclosure in this case violate that policy. We are working to provide additional training for all staff and ensure proper review of all materials." It's yet another example of AI being used to casually rewrite reality, perhaps in the cynical hope of achieving a "perfect" representation of something. The result, beyond being a lie, is often cheap, garish, and conspicuous. *Stanford Review*'s view was that the dining hall "likely believed \[the changes\] were subtle enough for no one to notice." Ramirez, in all, sounded jaded and a little bemused. "It is Silicon Valley," he told *SFChronicle*. "I'm not as surprised given the culture of Stanford revolves heavily around AI usage," adding that some of his professors regularly use Anthropic's Claude chatbot. **More on AI:** [*Robin Williams’ Daughter Horrified by People Creating AI Conspiracy Videos of Her Dad Long After His Death*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()