An initiative to introduce a humanoid robot and artificial intelligence (AI) teaching assistant at a high school in the US state of New York has caused intense controversy. The British daily The Guardian reported this on 26 July. The robot is being installed to run a pilot programme at Salamanca High School, located on the Allegany territory of New York state’s Indigenous Seneca people. Teachers at the school and local residents, however, have sharply criticised the initiative as “utterly inappropriate” and “culturally insensitive.”
The Cattaraugus County school district spent 57,590 dollars to buy this M-series robot named “Sally,” made by the Toronto-based company RealBotix. According to RealBotix’s claim, theirs is the first school district in the United States where such a robot and AI teaching assistant is being installed. The company says it will assist lessons by conversing directly with students and displaying facial expressions.
The main point of controversy, however, lies elsewhere. The company RealBotix was previously involved in the cryptocurrency business and, the report says, bought the sex-doll maker Simulacra for 16.7 million dollars in April 2004. Although RealBotix has claimed this robot project has no connection with its earlier business, deep anxiety has arisen among teachers. The president of the Salamanca Teachers’ Association, Lacey Pihlblad, said the teachers’ union is worried about the company’s past history, data security and privacy. Urging that technology in the classroom be reduced, she has asked for the project to be suspended for now.
The president of New York State United Teachers, Melinda Person, also called it worrying, saying educational institutions need a genuine human touch rather than machines. Placing such a machine in front of children belittles the teaching profession itself, she said.
About 40 percent of the school’s students are Indigenous or Native American. A local resident and substitute teacher, Sierra May Abrams, said angrily: “Of all the schools in America, why are these experiments carried out again and again on our Indigenous children?” In local people’s view, the initiative recalls Indigenous people’s bitter history of the past and the trauma of boarding schools.
The New York State education department has also taken the matter seriously. Its spokesperson, JP O’Hare, said they had expressed deep concern to the school authorities about students’ privacy and the risks of using machines as a substitute for trained human teachers with core educational responsibilities. Even so, RealBotix said it would be introduced on a limited scale from the autumn and that it is not intended to displace teachers but to work as a complement to technology education.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report