A humanoid robot named Sally was due to take a seat in a Western New York high-school classroom this autumn, silicone skin, long brown hair, and all. Instead she is on hold.
A plan that had quietly cleared the Salamanca school board back in June turned, over the following weeks, into a public fight over student privacy, screen time, and the company that built her, and the state’s top education official has now asked the district to wait.
The Salamanca City Central School District sits on the Seneca Nation reservation in the state’s rural southwest and educates roughly 1,300 students, about a third of whom identify as American Indian or Alaska Native.
It announced the pause on Friday, after a letter from New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa.
“The Department remains concerned about the effect that a humanoid robot may have within a high-school classroom,” Rosa wrote, adding that many parents, teachers, and stakeholders were “understandably concerned about the presence of artificial intelligence technology in classrooms.”The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
