The children of Seneca Nation of Indians in this, our Brave New World, will, come the fall, have a hot new teaching assistant from whom to receive instruction. Called Sally, it is equipped with “silicone skin and long brown hair” and sporting a “lifelike appearance.”
Via New York Focus (emphasis added):
When students return to school this fall in the Salamanca City Central School District in Western New York, a new kind of teacher will be ready to greet them. The small, rural district located on the Seneca Nation reservation is set to be one of the first in the country to put a humanoid robot in a classroom. It will not replace the classroom teacher, but is programmed to provide learning support to both students and educators.
At a board meeting last month, the Cattaraugus County school district agreed to purchase the robot from Realbotix, a tech company, along with an artificial intelligence teacher’s assistant program allowing students to interact with an avatar of the robot on laptops...
The female robot, named Sally, will have a “lifelike appearance” with silicone skin and long brown hair, Kiguel said in an interview with New York Focus. It will be stationary in a seated position but have a wide range of upper-body movements and facial expressions…
Salamanca plans to introduce the robot and avatar in its high school AI and robotics courses, which use curriculum developed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to prepare students for high-demand tech jobs. The district plans to expand it to high school students in other classes if the pilot is successful…
The products cost the district $57,590, according to the contract attached to the school board agenda. Kiguel said the price was discounted; the company’s website lists the M-Series robot, the model purchased by the district, at a starting price of $95,000.
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That sounds lovely.
Sally the AI robot, in the renderings contained in the above article courtesy of Realbotix, looks like your idyllic elementary teacher.
The only asterisk?
Before she got a makeover and discovered her passion for educating the nation’s youth, Sally had a different name and a very different vocation, some version of what Social Justice™ people euphemistically call “sex worker.”
Via VICE, 2018 (emphasis added):
RealBotix… is an offshoot of RealDoll, the most popular sex doll in the world. Now, unsurprisingly, those dolls are becoming robots: RealBotix is producing robotic heads that can attach to RealDoll bodies. So, it’s an anatomically-correct sex doll with AI and facial movement. Through the AI, the doll can talk to you, answer and ask questions, and even remember things about you—so that after a while, it’s like the doll gets to know you. It’s basically Siri, except it makes stiff facial expressions and has a body that you can mold into any position and f***. Also, it doesn’t know any useful information.
Physically, the dolls are pretty impressive. They’ve got soft skin and realistic hair. It’s not like you can’t distinguish them from a human—they definitely look like dolls. But they also have a sexy, human-like quality to them. I talked to Matt McMullen, the RealBotix founder and CEO, and he told me that the doll isn’t supposed to look totally realistic; part of the attraction is in the fact that it’s clearly a doll that you can control.
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Last year, Realbotix renamed Harmony “Aria” and reintroduced her to the world, stripped of her artificial sex organs and “lacking anatomical correctness,” as an empowered working woman of the modern world.
Via BestofAI (emphasis added):
Realbotix, a company known for its history of producing sex dolls, showcased a life-sized robot named "Aria" at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Designed for social interaction, Aria can speak with an AI-enabled voice and move her head, but her sexualized appearance has sparked comparisons to sex dolls. Realbotix, now a subsidiary of Tokens.com, insists that Aria is not intended for sexual purposes and lacks anatomical correctness. The company aims to rebrand its robots as emotional companions, distancing itself from its adult industry roots to focus on mainstream applications like hospitality and companionship.
Despite these efforts, Realbotix faces challenges in overcoming its past associations and gaining acceptance for its AI robotics in professional settings. The company's pivot to AI robotics comes amid competition from major players like Tesla and Figure, who are also developing humanoid robots. Realbotix's strategy involves separating its robotics business from its adult products to facilitate growth, but the company must still contend with public perception and skepticism. The acquisition by Tokens.com, known for its controversial investment in virtual real estate, adds another layer of complexity to Realbotix's repositioning efforts.
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Once more, the company has redubbed Aria “Sally,” and she’s now tasked with molding the children of Cattaraugus County school district into tomorrow’s leaders.
Whatever could go wrong?
