When the Salamanca City Central School District in New York wanted to bring an A.I.-powered robot to the classroom, the superintendent turned to members of the student government.
They helped design nearly every detail. It would be a female between 16 and 24 years old; display a lighthearted, positive and humble personality; and know about the city’s local history, such as the importance of the Kinzua Dam.
Clad in pale silicone flesh, long dark hair and thin eyebrows, it would be called Sally, a play on the district’s name. Sally cost nearly $58,000. And it cost the leaders of the school system very real heartache as a torrent of criticism engulfed the decision to introduce an artificial educator.
“I know people thought that we were getting the Terminator,” Mark Beehler, the superintendent of the school district, said at a school board meeting this week. “This is not walking through the halls.”
Now, Sally — who, to be clear, does not have the power to stride — might not even be coming into Salamanca High School. On Friday, the school district said that it had put the robot program on hold after the wave of criticism.
The pause was announced shortly after the New York State education commissioner expressed concern on Friday about the robot and its potential to mimic the role of a teacher in the classroom.
“Many parents, teachers and stakeholders are understandably concerned about the presence of artificial intelligence technology in classrooms, particularly when it involves robots that resemble humans,” Betty A. Rosa, the state education commissioner, wrote in a letter to Mr. Beehler, which was obtained by The New York Times.
She said that the department would monitor the program for potential instructional, legal, privacy and security issues that may arise.
Her concerns added to those of teachers’ groups and parents about Salamanca City’s decision to buy the robot, which would be manufactured by a company called Realbotix.
A year ago, it had a different name, Tokens.com, with a different focus, as a crypto company. Now, it and a sister company make lifelike and life-size robots. While Realbotix focuses on robots for the classroom and home, the sibling company makes A.I.-powered sex dolls with names like Serenity and Harmony, marketed as the “world’s most advanced sex robot.”
In an interview this year with The Robot Report, Andrew Kiguel, the chief executive of Realbotix, said that its robots were not capable of physical intimacy.
In a statement on Friday, Realbotix said, “No adult-products business has any involvement in the Salamanca project.”
The company added that it supported the district’s decision to pause the rollout. “Healthy skepticism is valuable,” the company said. “Realbotix’s products are designed to support human engagement while complementing the work of educators and professionals.”
Melinda Person, the president of New York State United Teachers, the statewide educators’ union, called the potential introduction of a robot a “thoughtless expansion” of technology in the classroom.
“A robot built by a company associated with sex dolls has no business in our classrooms,” Ms. Person said in a statement.
Mr. Beehler did not respond to requests for comment.
The school district said on Friday that it was working on “enhanced student data privacy agreements” with the New York State Education Department.
“Ensuring that appropriate privacy protections are in place and incorporating input from our community are important parts of the process,” the district said.
In recent months, parents and teachers across the United States have spoken out about A.I. in schools and its potential to sever the human connection between teachers and students. While school districts have introduced tools such as chatbots, few, if any, have incorporated a humanoid robot.
Earlier this week, Mr. Beehler had spoken excitedly about bringing Sally to the school district, which has about 1,400 students on the Allegany Reservation, a Seneca Nation territory about an hour south of Buffalo.
He suggested that the outcry had been blown out of proportion, blaming news reports that he claimed had spread misinformation about the A.I. tool. Sally was needed to address equity issues in Salamanca City, he said, because students there often miss out on the latest technology.
“If this looked like a golden retriever and did exactly the same thing, I don’t think we’d have as many people here,” Mr. Beehler said at the meeting. “But because it looks like a human, everybody seems to have some either excitement about it and are encouraged by it or have some concerns.”
He explained that Sally’s features were decided in consultation with students, who said it would be “freaking creepy” if Sally were just a head, which was an option. So they opted for a Sally with a body and a head.
While the humanlike version of Sally had not arrived, Mr. Beehler demonstrated a computer-based version of Sally, which initially would have been made available to high school students and focused on math and science. It could expand to other grade levels and subjects in the future, he said.
In one exchange, he spoke to it as if he were a student, saying that a friend appeared suicidal. (Sally suggested that the student alert an adult and offered to help write a message to the friend.) He then asked about a chemistry concept. (Sally said it could provide a short explanation.)
During the presentation — which happened before the decision to halt plans for Sally’s arrival — the superintendent said that it would not replace teachers, nor would it record interactions with students.
At the end, Mr. Beehler said he had not expected Salamanca City to come under such an intense spotlight.
“We are getting a lot of heat on this,” he said. “Some of it is good, but there is a lot of misunderstanding.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
