AI
‘Really inappropriate’: teachers decry plan for humanoid robot in New York high school
Teachers and local Native American residents are protesting a pilot program at Salamanca High School in New York that introduces a $57,590 Realbotix M-Series
Key takeaways
- The school district will be the first in the US to deploy a humanoid robot and AI teaching assistant.
- The introduction of human-like robots dehumanizes the profession of education.
- The pilot program is culturally tone deaf and represents history repeating itself regarding experimentation on Native American children.
- The robot could be used to perform functions that should remain the responsibility of trained, qualified professionals.
- The program is intended to complement, not replace, teachers by giving students supervised access to emerging AI and robotics tools.
Teachers and local Native American residents are protesting a pilot program at Salamanca High School in New York that introduces a $57,590 Realbotix M-Series humanoid robot named Sally and an AI assistant named Optio. Critics argue the technology dehumanizes education, raises student privacy issues, and is culturally insensitive to a student body that is nearly 40% Native American. Realbotix and the school district defend the program as a supervised STEM curriculum tool, while the New York State Department of Education has raised serious concerns about student privacy and replacing professional educators.
In their words
“Placing a humanoid robot into the classroom to interact with our children, I believe, is a massive step in the wrong direction, and I believe that the majority of our teachers feel the same.”
“Our members in Salamanca and educators across the state are sounding the alarm that this is really inappropriate. I would say our initial reaction is this is kind of creepy.”
By the numbers
- $57,590
- Purchase price of the humanoid robot named Sally
- $16.7M
- Acquisition price of sex doll maker Simulacra
- 40%
- Approximate percentage of Native American students at school
How it unfolded
- Realbotix acquired sex doll maker Simulacra for $16.7m
- Scheduled launch of the limited pilot program with Optio
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Common questions
- What happened with Salamanca high school?
- The school district will be the first in the US to deploy a humanoid robot and AI teaching assistant.
- Where can I read the original report?
- Read the full report at guardian_world.
