New York High School Gets AI-Powered Robot Assistant Parents and Teachers Are Concerned

Some New York students and teachers will return to classrooms adorned with a mysterious — and possibly unwelcome — AI-powered assistant come September.

The Salamanca City Central School district, located about 60 miles south of Buffalo, has signed a $57,590 contract (PDF) with robotics startup Realbotix to introduce AI tools and a humanoid robot to select technology classes at Salamanca City Central High School.

The humanoid robot, named Sally (pictured above), is one of the models in Realbotix’s M series. It is designed to mimic the human appearance, with a silicone skin and a wide range of facial movements, although it is limited to a stationary sitting position.

The Realbotix press release says the robot “uses natural conversation, facial expressions and real-time communication” to encourage student engagement. Students will be given personalized ID numbers to interact with the robot, which will reportedly remember and answer their reading data and previous quizzes.

In addition to the robotic teaching assistant Sally, Realbotix is ​​integrating its Optio AI model into the school district to act as a home tutor for around-the-clock homework support. The company says both Sally and Optio are built with education-specific monitoring tools in place.

Human instructors will sit in the classrooms of Salamanca City Central High School, where they are expected to do most of the teaching and monitor the robot’s responses to the students.

Optio will initially be available to high school students in an AI and robotics class, with plans to expand the program to 500 students in the fall.

“Many schools take the simple solution of just closing [AI]but I have found that students will find a way to follow the many rules set by schools,” said Salamanca City Central District Superintendent Mark Beehler last week in response to a Syracuse.com reporter.

This news has caused friction between the teachers’ union and other members of the community.

“The future of education is not artificial intelligence,” New York State United Teachers president Melinda Person told CNET in a written statement. “It is true human wisdom: more relationships, more training and more opportunities for every child to be seen, known and inspired by a great teacher.”

Local parent Sierra Abrams responded on the district’s Facebook page about the interaction, calling the technology an unfair coercion.

“We already have many problems in our society, including the environment,” he wrote. “I don’t understand the idea of ​​adding AI to that.”

AI in education

Schools have been grappling with the risks and promises of productive AI tools since ChatGPT burst onto the scene nearly four years ago, with issues ranging from plagiarism and intellectual development to the need to provide students with training for jobs that will have AI at their core. The rapid changes prompted grassroots parent and teacher groups, including District 14 Families for Human Learning and the Coalition for an AI Moratorium, to urge state legislatures to end the two-year moratorium on the integration of AI in K-12 classrooms.

The Trump administration, on the other hand, has made a positive decision to embrace AI in education. US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon emphasized that the integration of AI is one of the priorities of her department, which has contributed millions of dollars to that goal.

First Lady Melania Trump also championed AI in the classroom, appearing at a conference with an AI-powered educational robot named Plato to promote her program to be First: Inspiring the Future. At that event, he talked about putting AI-powered robots in children’s homes to “help their education” and “develop analytical and problem-solving skills.”

More broadly, President Trump has thrown his full support behind American AI companies. In December, for example, he signed an executive order designed to prevent state governments from enacting “onerous legislation” that would prevent the creation of AI data centers or the development of LLMs.

Teachers and robots

Salamanca City Central School District is part of Apple founder Steve Wozniak’s Woz Ed STEM curriculum, which focuses on science and technology education. Besides spending on contracts like the Realbotix integration, the district offers activities including a drone and robotics camp and free Makerspace access for students.

The district is located on the Allegany Indian Reservation and serves 1,300 students; approximately one-third of the student body is Aboriginal. According to the US Census Bureau, Salamanca has above average poverty rates. New York Focus reports that nearly four out of five of the district’s students are economically disadvantaged — and critics worry that the integration of AI into schools will push the student population out of the area.

A NYSUT spokesperson said in an email that details of the contract between the Salamanca City Central School District and Realbotix were not shared with teachers prior to the announcement, and that the superintendent instructed employees to speak to him about their concerns instead of taking them to social media.

“Teachers were not consulted about the placement of this AI robot, and the contract could not [instead] hire two people to help in the classrooms of the district,” the spokesperson wrote.

“This program is intended to supplement, not replace, teachers by providing students with supervised access to emerging AI and robotics tools as part of the district’s existing STEM curriculum,” a Realbotix spokesperson told CNET via email.

A representative for the Salamanca City Central School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Our students are not lab rats”

Then there is the technology itself. While powerful LLM chatbots can sift through vast amounts of information to generate answers, essays and more in seconds, they are prone to errors and distortions, known as hallucinations.

Beehler, the district superintendent, told New York Focus that integrated LLMs will answer questions with “I don’t know” rather than scowling to answer students. However, it is not clear how a large language model can indicate that it is about to produce an answer.

The teachers’ union contested both aspects of the technology and the company involved in providing it.

“Our students are not lab rats. They should not be treated as such,” a NYSUT spokesperson wrote. “There is a lot of concern about this technology, its implementation and the way Realbotix has sold it to the district administration in the first place. Salamanca should not be the base for another company to jump in trying to sell districts a new gadget they don’t need, especially a company with a Realbotix background.”

Several media reports have tied Realbotix to the adult product business RealDoll, which produces intelligent robotic toys for adults. RealDoll is part of Simulcra, which was acquired by Realbotix in 2024.

A spokesperson for Realbotix told CNET that there is no relationship between RealDoll and the team behind Sally.

“Realbotix LLC is primarily focused on non-adult applications, including healthcare and education,” a spokesperson wrote. “No adult product company is involved in the Salamanca project or any product developed by Realbotix LLC.”

Realbotix and RealDoll do not share staff, payroll, physical locations or technology, according to a New York Focus report. The publication also reported that Realbotix plans to withdraw from RealDoll once Sally is placed in Salamanca classrooms.

Tyler is a CNET writer covering laptops and video games. He has previously covered mobile devices, home energy products and broadband. He came to CNET right out of college, where he graduated from Seton Hall with a degree in journalism. When Tyler isn’t asking questions or researching his next assignment, you can find him in his hometown of New Jersey, kicking back with a badge and watching a cartoon or playing a new video game. You can reach him at tgraham@cnet.com.

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