What works in Stanford

Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing has generated $88m+ in annual licensing revenue and launched 28 new startups in FY2025, though only an estimated 20–25% of the 541 invention disclosures received are ever licensed, indicating highly concentrated returns from a small number of blockbuster patents. In educational technology, a randomised trial of GPT-4 in Stanford's Code in Place course with 5,831 learners found that offering the tool reduced average exam participation and attendance, though students who actually adopted it scored better on exams, with benefits concentrated among learners from low-HDI countries. In response to concerns about generative-AI-enabled cheating, Stanford voted in May 2026 to end 105 years of unproctored exams, expanding a pilot of equitable proctoring practices—though the evidence linking the policy shift directly to an AI-driven cheating surge rests on faculty testimony rather than published, AI-specific violation counts.