New York school deploys AI teaching robot from company linked to sex bots

[qualia]

https://morty.digdeeper.rodeo/post?mort ... e_vignette

The first potential steps toward another profession being wiped out by AI are being taken in New York. When students in the Salamanca City Central School District in Western New York return to school in the fall, they will find a new teaching assistant: a robotic one powered by artificial intelligence. If that doesn't sound weird enough, the company behind the machine, Realbotix, is the parent of a hyperrealistic sex-doll manufacturer.

Located on the Seneca Nation reservation, the rural district will be one of the first to use the humanoid robot, part of Realbotix's M-Series and named Sally. It's integrated with Optio, Realbotix's AI-powered teaching assistant, which can be accessed by students off-site for out-of-hours learning.

An easily accessible AI in any school is going to raise concerns, but Realbotix promises that its program features strong school-specific safeguards for content and privacy, removing the risk of exposure to inappropriate, inaccurate, or biased information. It also has protections against inappropriate responses and unreliable outputs and operates under full district oversight.

[digdeeper]

Yes. Deploy the sexbot, maybe it will be more fun than the screaming teacher .

More seriously, I don't see this as a big problem. The problem was always school for all the reasons I've written about. And assuming there is no teacher in the room, maybe the place will become a little softer on the students. The robot won't run around and beat you, or try to humiliate etc. Unless such functionality is coded into it which I doubt.

As for lost jobs, we can't pretend the job system is viable anymore. But that is not really specific to the school sexbot. It leaves one less occupation which is amenable to strikes, which is sad. But again, not specific and the fact we will need a physical revolution (kicking out the people in power or somehow making their influence irrelevant) was obvious for a long time regardless.

The article also complains about surveillance as if it hasn't been around for decades. School always tracked attendance even before digital tracking was in. Then came CCTV, then police, transparent backpacks, RFID tracking, automatic notification of parents, blah blah. The sexbot will perhaps make it easier to track and / or track more things (like what questions students were asking), but still - the problem enabling tracking is the oppressive institution of school. It "needs" to track attendance so it can punish kids for not coming and teach them their life isn't theirs early on. It "needs" to track behaviors so it can mold them into the state's perfect puppets. Yet I suspect conservatives (and most of everyone actually) will focus on the sexbot and ignore the fundamentals of school. Oh well.

Someone will probably want to say that the sexbot is uniquely bad because now the "elites" (whoever they are) will be able to automatically put in it whatever educational program they want to insert into the students. I can see this argument yet this is basically what happens today already. There is a "curriculum" and teachers cannot affect it in any significant way. They can strike, which I've already covered and they never strike in favor of the students anyway (students have no effect on it). Actually, they don't even care about the curriculum but about the pay, usually.

To play devil's advocate against myself, one actual bad effect that could happen is getting kids used to be "directed" by robots or being under the authority of ones, which will make them more amenable to accept police bots etc. But truly, we've lived in an authoritarian world for a long time regardless, and police bots have been in since a while. And again, eliminating school fixes this too.

[TechLord]

Yes. Deploy the sexbot, maybe it will be more fun than the screaming teacher .

That's what I thought too.

[TechLord]

I don't think students would take a bot seriously enough to allow it to take away their mobile phones.

[molly]

I do think AI will play a role in teaching in the future, as with most things it will have good and bad sides.
Maybe schooling from home will be the norm in the future, but may damage social skills.
Human teachers can be bias to some children, love or hate...AI will not do this.
Human teachers have experience, AI will not give this to children.
Free AI can be wrong and public schools wont have the best up to date AI, that will be only for the rich.
There are too many other factors.

One things for sure these sex dolls will be very good at sex ed....

[mocheryl]

Maybe schooling from home will be the norm in the future, but may damage social skills.

When I read articles about home schooling they always mention that and it irritates me because they never substantiate it with any arguments. Do they think "home" means that kids are locked within four walls 24/7? Sometimes that may be the case, but that is more due to psychotic parents than the concept of home schooling. From the experiences of others that I’ve read, children just spend couple of hours a day doing their school assignments (even outside if the weather is nice). After they’re finished, they go and meet with whoever they like, wherever they like to do whatever they like. To me this seems like a positive. It certainly is better than being stuck in a room for half a day with thirty other assholes whose sole purpose is to make each other’s lives as miserable as possible. For those that did get along well with their classmates, I’m happy for you, but you can’t generalize social skills solely based on your own.

Human teachers can be bias to some children, love or hate...AI will not do this.

Indeed. Education is already practically mechanic. Not much difference in having a literal robot doing the teaching now. At least machines are neutral and don’t do any favoritisms where certain pupils always get spacial treatment while others are constantly belittled for no apparent reason and get failing grades.

[digdeeper]

When I read articles about home schooling they always mention that and it irritates me because they never substantiate it with any arguments. Do they think "home" means that kids are locked within four walls 24/7? Sometimes that may be the case, but that is more due to psychotic parents than the concept of home schooling. From the experiences of others that I’ve read, children just spend couple of hours a day doing their school assignments (even outside if the weather is nice). After they’re finished, they go and meet with whoever they like, wherever they like to do whatever they like. To me this seems like a positive. It certainly is better than being stuck in a room for half a day with thirty other assholes whose sole purpose is to make each other’s lives as miserable as possible. For those that did get along well with their classmates, I’m happy for you, but you can’t generalize social skills solely based on your own.

Yeah I never understood this "based school is needed for socialization!" belief. How do you socialize in a classroom when you are not allowed to speak without permission, and must sit and write? Even worse during recess with 300 people stuck together like cockroaches on a WEF farm.

Personally, I never made friends in school. I don't even get HOW would you do that? Unless you want to ask someone "hey let's meet outside of school". But that seems superflous as you can meet people anywhere. And it's much easier anywhere but in school. In school people form stupid cliques and you need to "fit in" to get in. Outside people are way more open. At least it used to be the case when I was a child. You'd just go up to someone and play. School somehow ruins all that.

Indeed. Education is already practically mechanic. Not much difference in having a literal robot doing the teaching now. At least machines are neutral and don’t do any favoritisms where certain pupils always get spacial treatment while others are constantly belittled for no apparent reason and get failing grades.

I find it hard to even talk about "education" because I feel it's completely pointless especially in this day and age, where you can look up anything on the internet. It is just programming people to be useful tools for the state and corporations, with education as a cover since you don't need 90+% of the stuff in real life anyway.

[mocheryl]

When I read articles about home schooling they always mention that and it irritates me because they never substantiate it with any arguments. Do they think "home" means that kids are locked within four walls 24/7? Sometimes that may be the case, but that is more due to psychotic parents than the concept of home schooling. From the experiences of others that I’ve read, children just spend couple of hours a day doing their school assignments (even outside if the weather is nice). After they’re finished, they go and meet with whoever they like, wherever they like to do whatever they like. To me this seems like a positive. It certainly is better than being stuck in a room for half a day with thirty other assholes whose sole purpose is to make each other’s lives as miserable as possible. For those that did get along well with their classmates, I’m happy for you, but you can’t generalize social skills solely based on your own.

Personally, I never made friends in school. […] In school people form stupid cliques and you need to "fit in" to get in.

Me neither. Also, the only cliques (if you could call it that) we formed were about a group of classmates hating other group of classmates. This was in both elementary and high school. I did hang out with those whom I at least shared some interest with, but not necessarily because I wanted too, but more to make the school years less insufferable. They were all jerks and phonies anyway. By chance I heard they held a high school reunion a long time ago. They didn’t even send me an invitation. Not that I would attend, but still. Fuck ‘em.

Indeed. Education is already practically mechanic. Not much difference in having a literal robot doing the teaching now. At least machines are neutral and don’t do any favoritisms where certain pupils always get spacial treatment while others are constantly belittled for no apparent reason and get failing grades.

I find it hard to even talk about "education" because I feel it's completely pointless especially in this day and age, where you can look up anything on the internet. It is just programming people to be useful tools for the state and corporations, with education as a cover since you don't need 90+% of the stuff in real life anyway.

Agreed. I was referring to the currently established framework. It would be better for every student to have his own AI assistant. This way you would learn material that actually matters and is interesting. Schools as they are now are more about manufacturing conformist than educating.

[Anon E. Moose]

They didn’t even send me an invitation. Not that I would attend, but still.

I thought people here care about anonymity more than empty socializing.

The best outcome for me would be my classmates completely forgetting I ever attended.

[Anon E. Moose]

When I read articles about home schooling they always mention that and it irritates me because they never substantiate it with any arguments. Do they think "home" means that kids are locked within four walls 24/7?

Did the police never stop you asking to state your business? During COVID, you additionally had to have a written statement from your boss. The cops aren't taking kindly to idle youth. A person taking a "detour" from his usual route is considered suspicious. And kids aren't welcome pretty much anywhere in adult land. So if you're not heading to school, what are you doing here? Homeschooled children don't have many excuses to be anywhere but home.

At least machines are neutral and don’t do any favoritisms where certain pupils always get spacial treatment while others are constantly belittled for no apparent reason and get failing grades.

Codified algorithms are typically worse at that: see the Chinese social credit system. With people the reason may not be readily apparent but that does not mean the machine is designed to explain the decision to you either.

[digdeeper]

Did the police never stop you asking to state your business? During COVID, you additionally had to have a written statement from your boss. The cops aren't taking kindly to idle youth. A person taking a "detour" from his usual route is considered suspicious. And kids aren't welcome pretty much anywhere in adult land. So if you're not heading to school, what are you doing here? Homeschooled children don't have many excuses to be anywhere but home.

I don't know what dystopic place you live in, but I feel bad for you. I mean I hate cops regardless, but it's not as bad everywhere.

[mocheryl]

When I read articles about home schooling they always mention that and it irritates me because they never substantiate it with any arguments. Do they think "home" means that kids are locked within four walls 24/7?

Did the police never stop you asking to state your business? During COVID, you additionally had to have a written statement from your boss. The cops aren't taking kindly to idle youth. A person taking a "detour" from his usual route is considered suspicious. And kids aren't welcome pretty much anywhere in adult land. So if you're not heading to school, what are you doing here? Homeschooled children don't have many excuses to be anywhere but home.

This is slave mentality. I’m a free man. I can do whatever I want and go wherever I want. I don’t need to justify anything to anyone. If a child wants to study in a park or in a middle of a forest, then so be it. If this isn’t acceptable in your culture then I feel sorry for all of you and hope you will eventually break from these shackles of oppression.

At least machines are neutral and don’t do any favoritisms where certain pupils always get spacial treatment while others are constantly belittled for no apparent reason and get failing grades.

Codified algorithms are typically worse at that: see the Chinese social credit system. With people the reason may not be readily apparent but that does not mean the machine is designed to explain the decision to you either.

Citing China as an example for anything in regards to society is a bad idea.

[Anon E. Moose]

This is slave mentality. I’m a free man. I can do whatever I want and go wherever I want. I don’t need to justify anything to anyone. If a child wants to study in a park or in a middle of a forest, then so be it.

In that case, cops (and maybe folks themselves) will gladly help you die free, proud, powerless, helpless, poor, and childless. Also, I don't need your condescension, somehow I think you're only as brave as the next keyboard warrior. If you had anything but hot air, you would be talking ways kids use to get others to respect their decisions where they previously were at other's mercy. And if you knew true meaning of freedom, you wouldn't put that much emphasis on going "where you want." Part of freedom includes freedom of association, to have your own home turf that's inviolate and off-limits to the outside people. You would befit to respect the same right of others, of course, and that definitely means only go where you want to if you have permission. The public space is not your home turf, thus you abide by the rules that say, among other things, that you must not loiter aimlessly and mind the youth curfew. Prepare your homework at the park all you want as long as the park is open to visitors, but do be mindful nobody in his right mind will let you proselytize doing so to other children, as studying in the middle of a forest has a recognized negative effect on school grades; thus an immediate and often irreversible effect on people depending on their performance.

Citing China as an example for anything in regards to society is a bad idea.

You want me to cite what "the land of the free" has done? Do you own homework.