Salamanca pauses use of educational robot

On July 10, the Salamanca City Central School District announced the launch of a pilot program featuring a Realbotix educational robot and digital avatar designed to support teaching and learning in its high school STEAM program.

After widespread criticism and concern, that project is officially on hiatus.

"Our pilot project with Realbotix is currently on hold while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with the New York State Education Department and continue engaging with our community and stakeholders," the district said in a Facebook post Friday. "Ensuring that appropriate privacy protections are in place and incorporating input from our community are important parts of the process. We appreciate your patience and will share additional updates as they become available."

On Monday, the New York State United Teachers sent a letter to the state Education Department asking for the state to establish enforceable statewide guardrails for artificial intelligence in schools with heightened protections for AI that is humanoid or built to mimic human relationships. The letter was sent to Betty Rosa, state education commissioner, Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young Jr. and the members of the Board of Regents as well as Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators. The letter thanks the Department for its swift action in Salamanca, where the district on Friday paused its plan to place “Sally,” a lifelike AI robot marketed as a “teacher’s assistant,” in a high school classroom.

“What stopped this robot was a news story, alarmed parents and educators, and a commissioner’s letter -- not any law or policy of this state, because none exists,” said Melinda Person, NYSUT president. “Before the next lifelike robot is unboxed in a New York classroom, every question in this letter must be answered fully, publicly and in writing. No student should be the test case for a machine built to befriend children.”

Salamanca school officials had billed the Realbotix robot and digital avatar as a way to encourage critical thinking and foster learning for students, saying the technology has been loaded exclusively with district-approved curriculum, instructional strategies and historical information about Salamanca. When students ask questions, the robot guides them through the learning process rather than completing the work for them.

The Realbotix system was not to have collected personally identifiable information, wouldn't record video or audio, transmit transmit data to the Realbotix Corporation and would have operated in accordance with district policies and New York State privacy requirements.

Salamanca officials had said in their announcement that the Realbotix educational robot wasn't designed to replace teachers, staff members or human interaction. It was to serve as an instructional tool teachers could use to engage students and reinforce classroom learning.

That didn’t stop NYSUT officials from asking if the robot, which had been nicknamed “Sally”, could perform certain teacher-related roles that include chasing a student who leaves a classroom to roam the halls, could take turns as a hallway, cafeteria or bus loop monitor along with other teaching assistants, and programming for school fire and active school safety drills.

“We ask the absurd questions alongside the serious ones because the absurdity is the point and because nothing in current law required anyone to answer even the serious ones,” the union’s letter states. “Salamanca will not be the last district a robotics vendor approaches, and the safeguards our students receive cannot depend on which district is next, or on whether a reporter finds out in time. Every question above should have to be answered -- fully, publicly, and in writing -- before any humanoid, embodied or human-mimicking AI is placed in front of students in any New York classroom.”