Google engineer rejected by 16 colleges uses AI to sue universities for racial discrimination

SAN FRANCISCO -- A begetter successful Palo Alto, California, who has filed aggregate lawsuits against large assemblage systems implicit his son's assemblage rejections, says artificial quality has go the cardinal to pursuing the cases aft nary instrumentality steadfast agreed to correspond them.

The ineligible combat stems from a 2023 story by our sister presumption ABC7 News successful San Francisco astir Stanley Zhong, a past 18-year-old Gunn High School pupil with a 4.4 GPA and a near-perfect 1590 SAT people who was rejected by 16 retired of the 18 colleges helium applied to. Despite the rejections, helium was aboriginal hired arsenic a bundle technologist astatine Google.

Two and a fractional years later, his father, Nan Zhong, says the household remains convinced radical favoritism played a relation successful those decisions. He spoke exclusively with ABC7 News anchor Kristen Sze.

Zhong said Stanley, present 21, is blessed and doing good successful his occupation astatine Google. "In 2025, helium received an outstanding interaction show rating, which is higher than bulk of the Google engineers," helium said.

Zhong said the household spent a twelvemonth successful discussions with University of California officials aft Stanley's rejections, but thing changed. He said the turning constituent came erstwhile a UC admissions manager emailed him, penning that his allegation of radical favoritism was unfounded due to the fact that California instrumentality bans the practice.

"When I got that line, I kept scratching my head," Zhong said. "They're saying determination cannot beryllium immoderate noncompliance if there's a instrumentality banning it, but we're precisely accusing them of breaking the instrumentality secretly. So that is the constituent wherever I realized there's thing we tin execute by having a speech with them."

Zhong said conversations with authorities lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom besides went nowhere, prompting the household to writer the University of California, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

He said they struggled to find ineligible representation. "We've been talking to section instrumentality firms, nationalist instrumentality firms. By my account, we astir apt talked to dozens of ineligible organizations and instrumentality firms. None of them took it," Zhong said. With statutes of regulation approaching, helium said the household decided to correspond themselves.

"Of course, being idiosyncratic with nary ineligible acquisition astatine all, we people turned to AI," helium said. "It turned retired to beryllium a boon that we ne'er anticipated to beryllium truthful effective."

Zhong said they usage aggregate AI models simultaneously to analyse ineligible questions, comparison answers and forestall errors. "It's similar having a squad of heavy lawyers, apical lawyers, each moving for you," helium said.

He pointed to a caller ruling successful the University of Washington case, wherever a justice rejected the university's question to enactment the case. Zhong said the determination underscored a situation successful bringing admissions lawsuits: students often suffer ineligible lasting erstwhile they scope their inferior twelvemonth of college.

"Here, Stanley has a unsocial advantage. He's not going to assemblage yet. He whitethorn spell astatine immoderate time," Zhong said. "So, successful immoderate ways, helium has evergreen ineligible lasting that allows america to bring the lawsuit."

Zhong said the broader admissions scenery has shifted since Stanley's rejections, citing the Supreme Court's ruling banning affirmative enactment successful the Harvard lawsuit and accrued scrutiny of elite universities. He said the household has spent important idiosyncratic funds and continues to prosecute the cases due to the fact that they judge the issues widen beyond their son. They person launched a nonprofit, SWORD, Students Who Oppose Racial Discrimination, to beforehand their cause. And they person received immoderate fiscal enactment done GoFundMe.

"We deliberation we person a unsocial advantage, and we don't privation to fto that go," helium said.