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Steve Wozniak's Foundation Partners With Realbotix To Build AI Teacherbot (nysfocus.com) 75

Posted by BeauHD from the robot-teacher-era dept.
"Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's Woz Ed foundation is partnering with Realbotix, best known for their RealDoll-branded artificial companions, to deploy AI-powered robotic tutors in classrooms," writes Slashdot reader Hentes. "The doll will serve as a sort of artificial teaching assistant, helping students who get stuck or generating lessons. Students will be assigned an ID code, allowing the robot to provide personalized mentoring." NYS Focus reports: "This deployment in a working school district represents a landmark moment for both AI and humanoid robotics," said Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Realbotix, which is currently building the robot. "[Salamanca City Central School District in Western New York] marks the beginning of a new era where humanoid robots and intelligent AI assistants become standard tools in STEM education."

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. Realbotix's classroom robot has drawn scrutiny because the company is connected to RealDoll, the longtime maker of hyperrealistic sex dolls and sex robots. Realbotix acquired RealDoll's parent company in 2024 but says the education-focused operation has separate employees, payroll, facilities, and technology, with plans to formally separate the businesses at the ownership level.

The "companion robots" are different from sex robots and intended to address what it's described as a "loneliness epidemic." Kiguel has previously said the company's goal is to produce robots and AI that are "indistinguishable from humans."

Steve Wozniak's Foundation Partners With Realbotix To Build AI Teacherbot More | Reply

Steve Wozniak's Foundation Partners With Realbotix To Build AI Teacherbot

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    • The skin needs more blemishes. Humans aren't that "perfect", even the ones with tons of work.

    • Yeah as a kid I would have had nightmares about that damn thing. And I absolutely would have hated it.

    • Well I'm not going to sleep very well tonight after seeing that monstrosity.
      I even involuntarily thought about where I keep my shotgun (mossy) and shells just in case this thing goes on a rampage.

  • The AI robot cost the district $57,590. It's actually a reasonable price for a robot.
    • Think of all the teachers salaries we could save with this monstrosity. Kids don't need to learn facts anyway they'll all be using AI later.

      • Yeah! they don't need to learn ANY math because calculators will do all that for them later!
        Seriously, this is the 1980s over again. Do the calculators do it all for you? never happened. Teachers won and we still learned some math despite the calculators; which were limited in their usage, they even had a protest of math teachers at the capital over the problem. A compromise was found. back then.

        People are stupid, ignorant, and lack creativity and motivation... already (in USA but it's coming to you.) So no

        • Re: Cost [of fake history?] (Score:5, Insightful)

          by shanen ( 462549 ) on Friday July 17, 2026 @08:53PM (#66244288) Homepage Journal

          Just think how much control we'll have over what gets taught.

          Accidentally I found myself reflecting on some parts of this topic as America and Israel start another round of war crimes. If there are any historians in the future, and I'm increasingly skeptical there will be, I think they will probably say that the high point of America, at least in moral terms, was probably when the nation accepted the reality of Vietnam and took the loss for higher morality...

          Appealing to the YOB's sense of morality will be the joke, perhaps the terminal joke, in referring to America's current situation. But the teaching bots will be able to say whatever with a straight face. And the kids will never know any better. If there are any kids?

    • The cost is $44 per Student only if they run the robot day-and-night so that every one of the 1,300 students gets one hour per semester of AI quality learning from the robot. However, it won't be available to every Student and it will require Supervision from a Teacher when it is not locked it its protective box so, the robot costs more that a human Tutor. I fail to see any advantage over a real teacher.

  • As if real teachers having an affair with a student isn't bad enough.

    • Is it statutory rape if it isn't human?

      • Legally you are allowed to even dismember it during your act as long as it is your own property or you have the consent of its owner.

      • A robot cannot legally consent.

        • A phone cannot consent to displaying porn, a car cannot consent to sex on the back seat. Also, a car cannot consent to participating in a kidnapping or bank robbery.

          This isn't being enlightened or touchy-feely, this anthropomorphizing is pretending everything is a victim. A certain country that proclaims "tough on crime" towards its fellow humans, is a hypocrite.

    • Holy cow! Kids are definitely going to fuck these things, I don't know what Woz is thinking.

    • I remember guys who couldn't handle school but getting an educational sex bot probably was the ONLY thing that could have taught them! Seriously, we should have prescriptions for these bots! You ever see an oversexed teenager with perfect grades? (if you think so, then you're misinterpreting over-sexed.)

      I'm serious; some kids are simply not ready -- some need major therapy full time not education. If you want a good generic solution with massive success... you take all 12 year old children and replace the

  • Here's an example of the company's robot in action [youtube.com]. I don't know why their demo models are women.

  • Well, they'll definitely save money on the bots slated for the sex ed classrooms, seeing as how all the tooling has already been developed.

  • Teacher here. I occasionally entertain the idea to make a company style education system. Standard membership means you get a seat in the back. You are not allowed to ask questions. You have a helpline it is a payed telephone number. Silver membership means you can get help from the state of the art AiTutor (TM). You can sit in the middle of class and can ask 1 question each lesson. Checking an exercise you made is 10$ if you let the AI do it. Teacher? That will be 50$ unless you made a mistake. Then it is

  • Interesting choice of location (Score:3)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Friday July 17, 2026 @07:52PM (#66244182)

    FTA: "Salamanca is the only incorporated city in the United States located entirely within a Native American reservation. The school district serves roughly 1,300 students, including 32 percent who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and 79 percent who are economically disadvantaged."

    The skeptic in me notes the relatively high percentage of indigenous students - and the quite high percentage of economically disadvantaged students - and wonders why this experiment isn't being conducted on rich, predominantly-white kids.

    I'm also aware that the motive here might be to give these students a leg up on their disadvantages; but history makes me doubt that.

    • I think it's because it's so much more difficult to keep staff at underprivileged schools. If they're short staffed and can't find additional teachers, it leaves a vacuum for a creepy AI sex doll.
    • A wealthy family chooses a 1st-rate private school for their childrens'  education;  TRULY wealthy families hire live-in tutors, and teacher-bots seem a replication attempt. Yep -- poor folks like tutors too! Considering the generally low-level of maths/science skill  among K-12 human teachers ( how many have an MS-maths degree ?)  , the edu-bots may find a niche. 
      • This is the kind of thing that keeps me coming back here - putting out my own thoughts and in return reading something insightful that likely would never have occurred to me.
  • Realbotix's classroom robot has drawn scrutiny because the company is connected to RealDoll, the longtime maker of hyperrealistic sex dolls and sex robots. Realbotix acquired RealDoll's parent company in 2024 but says the education-focused operation has separate employees, payroll, facilities, and technology, with plans to formally separate the businesses at the ownership level.

    The "companion robots" are different from sex robots and intended to address what it's described as a "loneliness epidemic." Kig

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quall ( 1441799 )

      Well, the lack of tax-payer funding has resulted in a reduced teaching staff in cities across the US. A city might not be able to afford more teachers, but it can probably afford a bunch of sex.. I mean teaching bots to supplement tutoring.

      Keep in mind that they sell several configurations, and you don't necessarily need the expensive full-bodied bot for teaching.

  • ..Neal Stephenson's "The DIamond Age".

  • Imagine the bug bounties (Score:4, Funny)

    by ElderOfPsion ( 10042134 ) on Friday July 17, 2026 @08:15PM (#66244232)

    Students exploit AI teacher's backdoor. News at 11.

    • When discussing a robot made by the same company that makes RealDolls, you might want to be careful with your phrasing.

  • This will be a spectacular failure (Score:5, Insightful)

    by flibbidyfloo ( 451053 ) on Friday July 17, 2026 @08:18PM (#66244238)
    There is no way in hell an Ai robot will be able to interact meaningfully with a classroom of kids under 12 - the youngest ones will act like little kids, constantly interrupting and talking over each other and confusing it because they are excited and have little impulse control. Older kids will mistreat it or try to mess it up because it has zero authority. Why spend $57k a year on another teacher, or on two part-time teaching assistants when you can spend that once on a POS that some sales-idiot convinced an administrator would work?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      It will probably be both. A mess in the first run, but a good learning experience what is needed for later iterations. Sometimes there is only one way to find out what's still missing.

      • Indeed. The only way to determine whether you can fly is to believe the guy who sells you a pair of wings and drives you to the top of a cliff.

    • This isnâ(TM)t about saving money or helping educators. This is the same thing as removing trollies so that people buy cars. Itâ(TM)s about control.

      We think this is the economy. But we wouldnâ(TM)t need prison if we spent that same money helping people instead of incarceration. It costs more than housing and college.

      There is more money spent spying on each American than helping them. What if we find that âoelow costâ AI actually costs much more than we are told. Why are we using it

  • Come, all ye young fellows that are learning to read, / (WITH A WAY, HEY, ROT YER BRAINS OUT!) / please pay attention and listen to me. / (GIVE ME SOME TIME TO ROT YER BRAINS OUT!)

  • Great News- (Score:3)

    by locater16 ( 2326718 ) on Friday July 17, 2026 @10:43PM (#66244382)
    -students will still be able to sleep with their teachers!

  • Look, I like Woz, he has done some great things.

    However, I'm not sure that sexbots with AI are ideal in the classroom for any age group.

    This is creepy as hell.

    • Re:WTF (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SoftwareArtist ( 1472499 ) on Saturday July 18, 2026 @12:24AM (#66244430)

      Putting aside the sexbot jokes, does anyone seriously think putting lifelike robots into classrooms will help anyone learn better? Even if you think technology and AI are the key to better education, an avatar on a computer screen would work just as well at much lower cost. But of course, it's becoming clear that technology in classrooms is more of a distraction than a benefit. The current movement is to reduce technology and get back to physical books and interacting with real people in real life.

      I just don't see what problem anyone thinks this solves.

      • > I just don't see what problem anyone thinks this solves.

        Normalizing kids to the uncanny valley?

        She's not creepy, she's your helpful friend.

  • Their cell phones will rot a generation, but they've got an AI horror bot to really screw up the kids. Will it help them with their suicide note ? or will it help plan the mostly justified revenge killings of the school council ? How about instead of the billion dollar AI bot we pay the teacher a few bucks and hire 2 of the mom's as class aids ? I liked Woz, mainly because he kept his fat ass out of the media and didn't make stupid grandstanding gestures.

  • Hmm. Maybe that would actually work.

  • The whole RealDoll crossover thing makes this song feel funny.

  • What is Wozniak doing with botox?

  • ... RealDoll-branded artificial companions ...

    Finally, sex education will be hands-on. At least, for the boys. The girls can continue pretending to be frigid 12 year-olds, as ordered.

    Well, for the few schools that have genuine sex education, or even half-arsed sex education.

  • Fu-u-u-u-u-ck

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