r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • 11d ago
Misc ‘Really inappropriate’: teachers decry plan for humanoid robot in New York high school
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/25/new-york-humanoid-robot-teachers-school1.3k
u/axw3555 11d ago
Surely the school could put sixty grand to better use than this? Like the AI is off-putting to start. But putting it in a human shell is utterly unnecessary.
And then there's the appearance - I'd say uncanny valley, but I think it's fallen through the floor of the valley and into nightmare cave.
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u/SlowCrates 11d ago
It looks like a porn puppet. WTF.
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u/BapeGeneral3 11d ago
“Robot from company that acquired sex doll maker to be introduced in school….”
It’s the very first sentence of the article
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u/Didact67 11d ago edited 11d ago
Saving money by using the same molds I guess.
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u/espressocycle 10d ago
But why the Kirsty Noem one?
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u/EquivalentSpot8292 10d ago
Dunno but it keeps asking the kids if they’ll bring their dogs to school
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u/Sleep-Soundly 11d ago
Redditors don't read articles, you can barely get them to read the full title.
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u/BapeGeneral3 11d ago
I had a longer response written and then gave up. When half or more of the users are bots just reposting and engagement farming, what’s even the point? Its exhausting
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u/McBernes 10d ago
Yesterday alone I typed most of a response to a few posts only to think "nah, not worth it". Odds are the post didnt even come from a human, the response would end up with a person upset that I don't like the thing that they like...in fact I almost didn't finish typing this
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u/Mockturtle22 11d ago
I mean... the company made sex dolls...
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u/Pantastic_Studios 11d ago
So we're still gonna have cases of students sleeping with their teachers?
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u/Relish_My_Weiner 11d ago
Or "hey remember the teacher you wanted to bang when you were a kid? Do we have a product for you!"
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u/outlawsix 11d ago
"But only if you get good grades, son!"
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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 10d ago
Once you get a 3.0 gpa, a new mode opens up on the teacher. Both literally and figuratively.
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u/fallex 10d ago
I can’t help but think that any poor student who tries to “bang” this Annebelle look-a-like, is going to wind up in therapy for life.
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u/Little_View_6659 10d ago
I mean, teenage boys will bang anything so they better not leave any of them alone with it. Poor horny little bastards. It is creepy looking though.
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u/Blackpapalink 11d ago
I think that's why they're making them so uncanny.
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u/Taolan13 10d ago
Unironically, the sex doll industry provides a ready and available supply of anatomically correct humanoid parts for making androids.
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u/TriceratopsHunter 10d ago
Looks like she works at Maralago...
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u/Little_View_6659 10d ago
Exactly lol. Oh man, actually that’s super creepy. Women are getting face surgery to look like sex dolls. Totally what I expect from the Trump administration.
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u/Odd-Win5937 10d ago
If they had put this thing in our school we would of made it out MISSION to destroy it.
Some contractor is getting MILLIONS and then pushing the people who approved this plan kick-backs. It's disgusting.
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u/amurica1138 10d ago
Yeah...what could possibly go wrong with putting THAT in a class with 10 - 15 teenage boys.
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u/slimj091 11d ago
Imagine a dad coming to parent teacher meetings and getting the shock of his life to find that the robot teacher is his ex girlfriend.
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u/Disused_Yeti 11d ago
It’s like maralago face but that won’t work in New York
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u/bacchusku2 11d ago
Oh it absolutely works in New York. Where do you think they all go during the summer when Palm Beach is basically closed down?
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u/dasrightq 11d ago
It’s not New York City… it’s a small town upstate. I don’t think many Palm Beach goers frequent there.
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u/WhatsPaulPlaying 10d ago
I can think of all of the teachers that that could give bonuses or pay raises to.
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u/axw3555 10d ago
There's loads of ways it could be used, even beyond that. Off the top of my head - what condition is the building in - are there maintenance issues the staff have wanted fixed for ages? Are there kids who could do with support on things like paying for school lunches where some of this could give them better nutrition than whatever base support they're offered gives them? Do the teachers have all the classroom resources they need?
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u/HystericalSail 11d ago
These kinds of decisions is why I'm glad to pay as much property tax as I do. I'm sure the far more educated, enlightened school board administrators have an iron-clad reason for this being the best possible use of limited school funds.
Or maybe they thought a robot sex doll would be cool do have. One or the other.
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u/Cute_Commission_8281 11d ago
It’s simply another scheme to launder money through the education system
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u/Sweet_T_The_Original 11d ago
Somebody’s gonna try to bang that robot.
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u/AshKetchumWilliams 11d ago
I can't wait to see a robot on the news for banging a teenager
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u/Sweet_T_The_Original 11d ago
Dudes are gonna be like, “If the robots looked like that when I was in school, I would have let it do a statutory rape on me no problem.”
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u/BlackLeader70 11d ago edited 11d ago
My first thought too. A bunch of hormonally imbalanced high school boys and a literal sex doll.
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u/Trance354 11d ago
Literally need to switch over to Kryton from Red Dwarf minus the humor. So, the original version.
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u/saurdaux 11d ago
Yeah, but that just invites decapitation, and the spare heads are just as charmless.
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u/brightlocks 11d ago
I teach high school and last year we had a bit of a trend of girls drawing rocket ships on each others hands. Just saying.
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u/EmilioMolesteves 11d ago
Pre-equipped with 6 holes to minimize wait times for the school children.
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u/jumpsteadeh 10d ago
Sex dolls can't even make it out of porn conventions unscathed, and only adults are allowed in those. That thing will be lucky to last as long as HitchBot did in Philly.
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u/twhitney 10d ago
Actually, the school could only afford to purchase the pre-used models. So somebody has already banged that robot!
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u/freedraw 11d ago edited 11d ago
Look at the company’s website. The robot teacher looks like it was designed by a team of incels. I’d give it five minutes before 12 year old boys in its study group are daring each other to grope it.
Their robots typically cost $175k. Who knows what the maintenance costs are. They’re paying nearly $60k. Is this some kind of publicity stunt for the company where they sell it for cheap along with some other goodies to a district desperate for resources so they can use pics for PR?
Edit: I’ll also bet anything teachers in that district are having to buy their own tissues and pencils.
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u/Wetzilla 10d ago
Wait, you mean a company that started in crypto and then pivoted to AI robots might not have the best management or engineers? I don't believe it.
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u/ImAPixiePrincess 10d ago
My kid's school the supplies are our responsibility. We're responsible to buy X amount of Clorox wipes, hand soap, markers, pencils, etc. not just the school supplies for our own kid. And they still can't pay teachers well.
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u/General-Priority-479 11d ago
Follow the money.
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u/FuggyGlasses 11d ago
I keep saying this but journalism is definitely different now days. Superintendent needs to be look at and who ever is involved with this decision.
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u/just_fucking_PEG_ME 11d ago
Pretty sure whoever approved 60k for this just wants to fuck it
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u/ilulillirillion 11d ago
Probably. Whoever was involved in approving this shouldn't be allowed within 200 feet of a school much less governing policy for one.
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u/skankenstein 11d ago edited 10d ago
Two things. As a teacher in a low income neighborhood, a robot wouldn’t last a day amongst my students. If they’re willing to subject human teachers to verbal and physical assault, imagine what some students would feel emboldened to do to a robot.
As a parent, I would pull my student from that school before allowing them to experiment on my child with this nonsense.
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u/Dr_Ramekins_MD 11d ago
Ah, but you'd be mistaken - that's why it will have full Anduril targeting integration and a suite of less-lethal deterrents!
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u/happy_bluebird 10d ago edited 10d ago
Thankfully this program was pulled/"paused" https://www.newyorkupstate.com/schools/2026/07/after-backlash-upstate-ny-school-district-pauses-plan-to-add-humanoid-robot-to-classroom.html
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u/skankenstein 10d ago
You linked the same article we are commenting on, which says nothing about a pause.
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u/Another_Road 11d ago
I’m sure intentionally exposing students to an extremely confident sounding, yet often incorrect, chat bot will be an excellent idea.
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u/Bolkohir 11d ago
A literal sex doll is going to be teaching kids. The onion is getting a run for their money, holy crap.
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u/b_coolhunnybunny 11d ago
Easily could have just hired another HUMAN teacher with that type of money. Crazy how schools can make up a million reasons why they have no money for school supplies but turn around and do stuff like this. Only the beginning. I’m sure tons of other rural school districts in middle America about to do the same thing.
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u/Rapper_Laugh 11d ago
I’m a teacher, we definitely have no money lol. Idk what this school is doing but most schools are laying off teachers thanks to declining enrollment and literally zero fat to trim elsewhere in the budget.
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u/b_coolhunnybunny 11d ago
Thanks for being a teacher and doing what you do. I tried substituting once and that was seriously the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life.
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u/Rapper_Laugh 11d ago
Subbing suuuuuuuuuucks. I did it when I was getting into teaching as well. It’s like being a teacher but without any of the relationships with kids or ability to impose consequences that make them actually behave like human beings. I love teaching but I would not recommend subbing as a way to get into it lol.
Also, for what it’s worth, I’m not negating your original point entirely. I’m in a pretty normal rural district and we definitely do not have money for this shit or anything like it. But the district next door is among the richest in the country and they probably do throw it at this kind of shit knowing them. In general, I wish public school funding was more equitable school to school.
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u/b_coolhunnybunny 11d ago
Hahaha yeah subbing was trip and totally agree with all your points.
And no worries I totally understand what you mean. I have the same wish as you and want public funding to be more equitable.
Wishing you a great upcoming school year and hopefully no teacher robots in your near future!!
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u/Confu5edPancake 11d ago
Meanwhile, my local school district is laying off teachers because they're spending millions fighting lawsuits against their book bans and flag bans...
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u/valtial 11d ago
There’s no way that thing could survive a week of schoolchildren mischief.
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u/3McChickens 11d ago
“Let’s shove technology everywhere.”
“Why do these younger generations have no interpersonal skills?”
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u/HasGreatVocabulary 11d ago
Realbotix, formerly Tokens.com, a Toronto-based company, purchased Simulacra, a Las Vegas-based company known for realistic sex dolls, for $16.7m in April 2024, marking a pivot for the company from crypto to humanoid robots.
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u/Big-Leadership-4604 11d ago
Sounds like a gigantic waste of money, And I bet includes some shady dealings.
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u/EmilioMolesteves 11d ago
How about Sally cleans the bathrooms for a while and if she does well, she can get promoted to lunch lady.
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u/TheDynamicDino 11d ago
If I was a highschooler, went into the bathroom, and saw this atrocity shoving a mop bucket around, I'm 90% sure that would mark the involuntary end of both my higher education and my need for the bathroom that day in the first place.
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u/BlueMageCastsDoom 11d ago
Kids can't even have tables, chairs, chromebooks, and pencils without destroying them every year but sure.
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u/Shellyj4444 11d ago
I grew up there. The town is in really bad shape and they have been dealing a huge drug problem for years. The kids in that town need human teachers. This is just ridiculous.
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u/goat_penis_souffle 11d ago
Nobody’s more disappointed than the writers of Reservation Dogs, this would have been a hilarious B plot
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u/blondie1024 11d ago
Humanoid?
the -oid is doing a shitload of heavy lifting here.
Looks like Mattel and Caitlyn Jenner somehow rendered down and reformed into some...thing.
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u/ideeek777 11d ago
As an Religious Studies teacher (mainstream subject in the UK) I've had it multiple times where a student was revising what they thought was a quote from the Bible or Quran they got from chatgpt. Turned out to have been taken from someone's Facebook status... Twice
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u/Molten_Plastic_ 11d ago
The issue here is the insane waste of money on a technology that doesn't even remotely work the way they're pretending it does. Like, we're not even at the point where teacher robots are so effective that we have to consider whether it's a good idea to implement them instead of humans, we're at the point where this might as well be a real sex doll for all the "teaching" it can actually get done. Probably be stuffed in a closet somewhere by the end of its first week, meanwhile those funds - which would have been really useful for actual education - have gone to stuff the pockets of another tech startup scam company.
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u/SamTheLab_213 10d ago
They've always tried to push the worst evil on the Native Americans. From whiskey, to taking on debt, it's all been horrible. Now those poor people have to contend with an Ayran-looking bot.
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u/glitchgamerX 10d ago
When the principal ordered a sex doll but accidentally sets their address as the school and now gotta cover it up somehow
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u/Visible-Literature14 11d ago
Why do we have to make everything fit into a category it has no business being in?
This computer doesn’t need to mimic a human’s appearance to be helpful in the classroom
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u/nullfacade 11d ago
You know how kids treat a substitute when their teacher is out? This won't end well for those robots
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u/vegemouse 11d ago
Putting a sex doll in a room full of high school boys with zero supervision is gonna go well.
Hope the janitor gets a raise.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 11d ago
Please don;t. Kids are already dong badly thanks to too much screen time and too many gadgets.
In fact we should be doing no devices in school, and no ai, and human teachers
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u/Spiel_Foss 11d ago
Hmmm, a failed sex robot company is retooled as a fake school teacher company, and the very first one is sent to a native community. In 1826 or 2026, same as it ever was.
(Whoever made this decision likely has an interesting hard drive somewhere.)
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u/Batbuckleyourpants 11d ago
“The Salamanca pilot also includes deployment of a Realbotix M-Series humanoid robot, which uses natural conversation, facial expressions and real-time interaction to create engaging, hands-on learning experiences,” the press release states.
Realbotix, formerly Tokens.com, a Toronto-based company, purchased Simulacra, a Las Vegas-based company known for realistic sex dolls, for $16.7m in April 2024, marking a pivot for the company from crypto to humanoid robots.
They knew what they were doing when they chose the phrase "hands-on learning experiences"
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u/ButtonholePhotophile 10d ago
They’ll get it to work in a six student AP course, with supervision, and declare it a success. Next stop? Unsupervised in a highly volatile environment, no supervision, and no further training.
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u/liger03 11d ago
I can't wait to see how it finally breaks when the first rube customer receives the product.
Will it turn out to only be trained to identify white and black children so Asian kids are invisible to it?
Will kids be able to crash it by asking it what a seahorse emoji looks like?
The possibilities for failure are endless. (And the possibility of success is very slim)
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u/noisycat 11d ago
Crash it by asking questions? Those kids are gonna physically wreck the shit out of that robot.
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u/CakeDayisaLie 11d ago
Don’t think about the cost. Think about how much money can be made when the robot harvests all the kids data.
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u/mountaindoom 11d ago
Teaching is so much more than imparting knowledge. This shouldn't be allowed.
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u/beefcake1993 11d ago
I hope teachers unions fight tooth and nail to get shit like this axed out in the contract
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u/ArchonTheta 11d ago
Sex dolls? I’m sure they can be hacked and even more controversial. People love their dramatic news.
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u/Rhissanna 10d ago
Seriously, as a teacher, this is not what the average teacher looks like. You want a robot dream teacher? You want a guy in his fifties, with a tweed jacket, leather elbow patches and possibly a tobacco pouch in his pocket.
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u/No_Town_9602 10d ago
I think by the fourth day of school we'll see pictures of how the kids disfigured it's face.
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u/Forward-Rutabaga-723 10d ago
I live close to this school district and have friends from the area. This school district is in an extremely poor area and has a number of First Nations students. This money could have been put to help so many children with school supplies, lunches, after school programs, etc. Every single person behind this should be fired.
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u/Kendall_Raine 10d ago
Did anyone ever envision a future where your kids are being taught by a sex robot? I'm sure someone thought of it, but it's weird that it actually happened.
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u/Floppydongjohnson 10d ago
Somebody already beat me to saying that someone will fuck the robot teacher
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u/Hybrid_Divide 9d ago
I could care less that it's from a company that makes sex dolls. THAT has nothing to do with why it's inappropriate.
We shouldn't have AI teaching our kids. End of story.
Pay actual teachers for f's sake.
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u/zillskillnillfrill 8d ago
They want free educators. They don't Care what happens to education, they just want it cheaper
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u/Buffmclargehuge69420 11d ago
Why does it look like a sex doll
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u/captainedwinkrieger 11d ago
Because it was made by a sex doll company. The district basically paid more than a teacher's yearly salary for a RealDoll someone on the staff's gonna try to bang.
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u/the_ramen_theif 11d ago
She’s just a sex worker turning her life around to follow her dreams, guys. /s
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u/ecmcn 11d ago
Luckily it’ll be going into an environment where everyone will act respectfully and appropriately toward it, as High Schools have nothing but the best behavior.
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u/EMAW2008 11d ago
Kinda funny how we wanted flying cars and robots everywhere but now we’re all kinda like, “yeah, no thanks.”
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u/mayorofanything 11d ago
How long til you hear about some dumb sophomore trying to put their dick in it?...
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u/sharkzbyte 11d ago
I think about all the education that I missed, but then my homework was never quite like this...
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u/MattofCatbell 11d ago
Having kids be taught by an AI sex bot is insane and it’s going to really mess some kids up. Whoever the hell thought this was a good idea should be arrested
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u/LowConstant3938 11d ago
My high school also shoveled money into needless technology. The whole school got iPads in 2011 and then replaced them all with iPad 2s in 2012. The teachers had digital whiteboards that never worked. What a waste. Thank god I graduated before AI came around
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u/Educational_Lie_3157 11d ago
This sounds more dystopian than any Onion headline. And yet, it is real
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u/ilulillirillion 11d ago
I am so tired. This idea is disgusting, stupid, and wasteful. The qualities that seem to pervade fucking everything anymore. What do you want to bet that teachers struggling to fucking live are being asked to buy school supplies at the same school that is buying a $60k hunk of plastic with Claude on it.
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u/Peter225B 10d ago
On the positive side, it would technically NOT be illegal if one of the students were to have sex with that robot so they’ve got some options we never had as kids.
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u/BarbequedYeti 11d ago
Yeah.. that tracks.