A school district in rural New York has paused a program to bring in a robot assistant teacher as it reviews privacy concerns.
The Salamanca City Central School District’s board initially approved the nearly $60,000 purchase of an AI-driven robot from Realbotix, which would not only be in the classroom, but could communicate with students through their laptops.
The robot, named Sally, is designed to resemble a human, with silicone skin and long brown hair. It will remain seated but will be capable of a range of facial expressions and upper-body movements. The robot would not be a replacement for teachers or staff or operate unsupervised, but be a tutor of sorts that remembers previous interactions with a student and tailors its responses to each student’s learning history.
However, the program has met with two major controversies.
WILLIAM BENNETT, JON HAGE: AI CAN MIMIC A TEACHER, BUT IT CANNOT SHEPHERD A SOUL
According to the Associated Press, Realbotix’s sister company, Intima LLC, “holds an ownership stake in RealDoll, a longtime maker of sex dolls, including a line of AI-powered models billed as the ‘world’s most advanced sex robot.’”
Realbotix, however, has asserted that these companies have completely different products with “no crossover.”
“Realbotix Corp. is a holding company with two separately operated businesses: Realbotix LLC, which focuses on AI-powered humanoid robotics for commercial service sector applications, and Intima LLC, which focuses on direct-to-consumer products. Realbotix LLC and Intima LLC have different product offerings with no crossover.”
The Salamanca City Central School District’s given reason for pausing the program, however, is students’ data concerns regarding any information they share with the robot.
The Associated Press reported that in a now-deleted statement from the district’s Facebook page, the robot teacher assistant pilot program is paused as the district works through “enhanced student data privacy agreements” with the state education officials and does community outreach.
“The robot also has been programmed to steer clear of inappropriate topics such as sex, violence and gambling, and it won’t be able to search the public internet or draw answers from unvetted generative AI services,” the Associated Press reported. “Instead, all information on ‘Sally’ will be stored locally, with the life-sized robot consuming roughly the same amount of energy as a laptop, according to the district.”
Mark Beehler, Salamanca’s superintendent, has addressed concerns about a robot replacing humans in the classroom.
“There is no possible way a robot can replace a human in a school,” he said Tuesday. “Even if it were possible, it would in no way be in the best interest of students. Teaching is a human-to-human process.”
HUMANOID ROBOT VIDEOS SHOW MACHINES LASHING OUT
He noted, however, that in their rural area, many students do not have easy access to the developing technologies of the future that could help unlock career pathways for them.
“In most cases, our students need to travel 1-2 hours to have opportunities to see emergent technology,” he said. “One of the intents of the robot is to help level the playing field and motivate students to continue studying robotics, AI, and STEAM related-career pathways.”
When reached by Fox News Digital, the company provided a statement from a Realbotix spokesperson: “Realbotix respects Salamanca City Central School District’s decision to temporarily pause the proposed pilot while the district engages with its community and Realbotix works with the district and the New York State Education Department to put an appropriate data privacy agreement in place. The physical robot has not been deployed.”
It provided further clarification on how the robot would protect students’ privacy.
“Realbotix understands the questions being raised by parents and believes they deserve clear, verifiable answers. The proposed physical unit would operate locally through the school and would not be connected to the public internet. It does not record audio or video and does not use facial recognition,” the spokesperson said. “Student authentication would be handled entirely through the district’s existing systems, and any student-linked information would remain encrypted and under the district’s control. Realbotix would not receive, access or store personally identifiable student information or student interactions.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
The statement added further that the robot indeed will not be a replacement for teachers , but to “serve as a supervised classroom resource for older high school students participating in the district’s STEAM curriculum. Like a calculator, laboratory apparatus or other instructional tool, it can help students engage with educational material and gain hands-on exposure to AI and robotics, but it does not perform the work of a teacher. Characterizations suggesting that the technology would replace teachers or assume their responsibilities are false.”
The company also distanced the robot from any adult associations, arguing that media reports have been outright false.
“Some media reports have also falsely connected the Salamanca project to an adult product or adult-products business. The Salamanca robot is a newly manufactured, purpose-built educational unit; no existing consumer product or hardware is being modified or repurposed for the school. Realbotix LLC focuses exclusively on non-adult commercial applications, including healthcare and education. No adult-products business has any involvement in the Salamanca project or in any product or initiative developed by Realbotix LLC.”
Fox News Digital’s Rachel del Guidice contributed to this report.
