There’s absolutely no way this won’t end well. A company best known for making lifelike sex dolls now plans to put AI-powered humanoid robots in a New York classroom as teachers’ assistants. Realbotix, which owns the RealDoll brand and was once a crypto company, will roll out its technology this fall in the Salamanca City School District, a small, high-poverty community on Seneca Nation land in western New York.
The plan pairs the company’s Optio AI software, trained on the district’s curriculum, with a seated humanoid robot named Sally that can talk, show facial expressions, and remember past conversations with students. Kids will also get an at-home avatar version for homework help. The district is paying about $57,590 for the pilot, which targets 500 students. The superintendent said banning AI does not work since students find ways around any rules put into place; the company calls it a flagship deployment and hopes to expand.
Source: Kotaku
