New York School District Cancels Contract To Use Humanoid Robot Teacher

The Salamanca City Central School District in New York canceled a contract with the Realbotix company for the use of its teacher robot, “Sally”. Concerns about data privacy and security  were raised by the community and teachers, as well as the State Education Commissioner.

Under the contract, the district allocated $57,590 to purchase the physical unit and pay a subscription fee of $6 per user per month for a 24/7 virtual AI avatar accessible on student laptops.  In the school district’s plan, the robot was characterized as a “tutoring platform” instead of actually delivering classroom instruction. The . . .