The Associated Press (Via WKTV-NewsChannel 2 Utica) reports the Salamanca School District in Western New York has hit pause on plans to deploy an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-powered, humanoid robot in the classroom after New York State Education Officials, Teachers and local residents raised concerns, including the maker's ties to a company that produces hyper realistic sex bots. The School District's Board had approved the nearly $60,000 purchase from Realbotix with visions that “Sally,” as the stationary robot with long brown hair has already been nicknamed, would enhance the education of high school students studying robotics and technology fields.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: New York School Pauses Plan to Deploy Humanlike AI Robot Teacher After Backlash | Local | wktv.com

Meanwhile, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) President Melinda Person sent the following letter to New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and the members of the New York State Board of Regents, which read - in part:

We call on the Department and the Board of Regents, and/or the Governor and the Legislature, to establish clear, enforceable statewide guardrails for Artificial Intelligence in our schools with specific, heightened protections wherever AI is humanoid, embodied or designed to mimic human relationships so that these questions are asked before a purchase order is signed, not after a news story breaks.

Educators, parents and students must be at the table when those rules are written.

“Implement first, ask questions later” cannot become New York’s de facto education technology policy.

NYSUT is not anti-technology.

We are pro-child.

On one point, we agree with Salamanca’s Superintendent: Schools should teach the proper use of technology, not simply exclude it.

So teach students about AI.

Have them build it, code it, question it and understand it.

Our Members do that every day.

That is profoundly different from installing a machine engineered to befriend children and our State’s rules should know the difference.

The tide is already running in this direction.

In New York, we have made great strides in reclaiming human-centered education, from restricting cellphone use in classrooms to signing Nation-leading online child safety protections into law.

Across the country, parents are organizing to demand stronger oversight of AI in their children’s schools.

In May, NYSUT and its more than 700,000 Members called for strict limits on AI and screen time in schools.

And just this month, the largest School District in the Nation froze new educational technology purchases entirely until guidance on Artificial Intelligence is in place.

To Read The Full Text Of NYSUT’s Letter, Go To: Letter to Commissioner Betty A. Rosa and the Members of the New York State Board of Regents