A school in Western New York has scrapped its plan to introduce Sally, an AI-powered robot teacher, to its classes, after backlash from parents.
While Artificial Intelligence has started playing a big role in many people’s lives, humanoid robots are not that widespread just yet. Sure, there are some businesses testing them as serving staff, but they haven’t succeeded everywhere. Back in early July, the Salamanca City Central School District in Western New York announced plans to bring a humanoid robot into classes as a classroom assistant. Named Sally, the lifelike robot from Realbotix would be able to interact with students and their classwork.
It initially drew a bit of skepticism online, as well as with parents, with a few of them flagging security concerns about allowing a robot to store data about their children – seeing as each child would have a unique number to interact with the robot.
Sally robot won’t be in schools just yet #
Now, the school district has d its plans to utilize the $60,000 robot in the coming semester due to that growing backlash.
As per the Associated Press, a number of parents flagged that the same company has a history of building dolls designed for intimacy, rather than school learning or teaching children, while the teachers’ union also rallied against it.
“Our pilot project with Relbotix is currently on hold while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with the New York State Education Department and continue engaging with our community and stakeholders,” they posted on Facebook.
Superintendent Mark Beehler also said that there is “no possible way a robot can replace a human in a school,” and that it would not be in the “best interest of students,” even if it were possible.
“Teaching is a human-to-human process,” he added.
Related #
Over in Japan, robot baggage handlers have been deployed to help with labour shortages in airports, as the country has seen an influx of tourists.