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Generative AI, Bias and Safety: Stanford GSB What Matters Essay Example

Stanford GSB MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 Words)

Background Information: Testing the authenticity of the insights from Generative AI was a challenge for the applicant when it suggested a stereotype. 

Theme: AI, Safety

Theme (Explained): AI safety is an emerging industry. The threat is real when the fallout is visible. But there are subtle reaffirmations of stereotypes that can negate decades of progress if the person testing AI is not vigilant. The faulty condition under which insurance premiums for black Americans were evaluated is the subject of AI bias.

Profile: Consultant

Industry: Technology

MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing doubt in an essay is the best way to hook the reader. And doubt expressed from the applicant’s point of view or experience is even better over an evaluation of a scenario through reason.

The biases from the 19th and 20th centuries continue to keep black communities with low coverage. When approval of insurance and calculation of premiums depend on AI, the originator of biases and prejudices would be an algorithm capable of spreading biases at scale.

Offering historical context on the origin of the bias was crucial for the essay to connect with the reader. I have strategically placed the ‘facts’ in the middle while building up the applicant’s story and her experience growing up without a father in the first half of the essay. 

Opener: Such risky openers will only work if you are from the same ethnicity as the line addresses.

Sample Stanford GSB MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (Generative AI, Bias, and Safety) (649 Words)

"African American fathers are more likely to stop child support than any ethnicity in the world. I would recommend that the person be quoted a premium at 20% over $R."

<x> - our first AI-driven text generative tool for the insurance giant, Y, was in beta. As the Product Manager, my role was to spot biases and ensure data privacy in all our machine-learning algorithms. 

When my friend looked at me for validation, I wondered, "There must be truth to that statement." 

My father abandoned my family when I was 5, and my sister was 3. He had developed an addiction that ruined our finances and forced my mother to ...

Download the Complete Stanford GSB What Matters Essay on Generative AI and Bias 

F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 Words)

Essay B: Why Stanford? (350 Words)

Optional Question: Think about times you’ve created a positive impact, whether in professional, extracurricular, academic, or other settings. What was your impact? What made it significant to you or to others? (600 Words) (200 words – each example)

Download F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide 

(24+ Sample Essays & 300+ Pages of Essay Writing Wisdom)

About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.