Robotics company Realbotix has long struggled to beat the allegations that its voluptuous humanoid robots are designed with prurient interests in mind.
Its $175,000 robotic companion, dubbed Aria, is platinum blonde, well-endowed, and tends to be decked out in tight-fitted sportswear at tech conventions. Yet the company insisted she’s not a sex doll, leading to plenty of incredulity online.
It’s also hard to ignore that Realbotix has an extensive X-rated past. bIts subsidiary RealDoll showed off the first-ever male sex bot back in 2022, which features robotic genitals. (Before robots, Realbotix rented out dubious “digital land” in the metaverse.)
Now, as New York Focus reports, the Salamanca City Central School District in western New York is ready to dig deep into its budget and deploy one of the company’s humanoids, dubbed Sally, in the classroom. The AI-enabled robot will reportedly serve as a teaching assistant for high school students enrolled in STEM, and arts courses.
It’s hard not to see the company’s sex robot roots in Sally’s visage. The $57,000 android has smooth silicone skin, a dazed expression on her face, and an ill-fitting wig made of long brown hair.
The district’s superintendent Mark Beehler told New York Focus that he was willing to give up banning AI in the classroom since “students will find a way around most rules that schools put in place.”
“I also believe it is critical for schools to teach proper use of technology, not simply exclude it,” he said.
Sally’s onboard AI can be used to generate lessons, provide translations in real-time in over 100 languages, and provide human teachers with guidance if a “teacher loses their place during a lesson or needs a prompt on what comes next,” according to New York Focus.
To us, that sounds like a pretty cynical take on the future of education. Teachers are already facing a major uphill battle thanks to the advent of the tech, with students suffering from declining cognitive abilities.
Of course, Realbotix argues that it’s done its homework. Instead of hallucinating facts, a major shortcoming of the tech that makes it arguably unfit for most classroom use, Sally will allegedly say “I don’t know.” Realbotix also said its robot won’t be directly connected to the internet to keep highly sensitive information about students from prying eyes.
Still, it’s a bizarre investment for the school district that comes at a particularly tough time for human educators. The reality is that teachers across the country are woefully underpaid. There’s a massive shortage of instructors, with tens of thousands of teacher positions going unfilled.
In a press release, the Salamanca City Central School District stressed that the “Realbotix educational robot will never replace teachers, staff members, or meaningful human interaction.”
But whether Sally will actually serve as “another instructional tool that educators can use to engage students, reinforce classroom learning, and spark curiosity about emerging technologies,” remains to be seen — especially considering its steep price tag and lascivious origins.
More on Realbotix: “Companionship” Robot That Its Creator Says Is Definitely Not a Sex Robot Looks Around With a Dazed Expression
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Can companies seize your private property to build data center infrastructure?
According to legal scholar Aaron Walayat at the University of Dayton, it’s certainly a possibility.
In a new piece for The Conversation, Walayat warns that power companies in states like George and Pennsylvania have been considering the use of eminent domain — the government’s prerogative to seize land without its owners’ consent — to build more transmission lines used to power data centers.
If a landowner refuses a power company’s payout, the power company can turn to the local government to seize the land if it’s for “public use,” paying the landowner “just compensation.” These seizures are called condemnations, and most of the time they’re carried out by state and local governments, according to Walayat. In the case of transmission lines, the power company would be able to buy an easement on the landowner’s property.
But so-called “common carriers” like power and water companies can exercise this power too, he added, if governments delegate it. And while many states have placed heavy restrictions on how condemnations are used, courts have typically allowed entities like utilities and power companies to exercise it.
They’ve even allowed homes to be demolished in the name of “public use” and economic development. In 2005, the US Supreme Court sided with the the city of New London, Connecticut, allowing it to seize homes to build a private development around a Pfizer facility. But that development never materialized, and this lead to 45 states passing stricter eminent domain reform laws, Walayat noted.
Any condemnations for transmission lines will face plenty of legal challenges, but aren’t without precedent. Walayat says that the supreme courts of South Dakota and Vermont have both backed up seizures by power companies, on the grounds that their transmission lines provided some energy to in-state customers and shored-up their local power-grid.
That’s not always the case. In 1984, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied a power company’s condemnation because the transmission line, which was planned to run from Mississippi to Louisiana, wouldn’t have provided any benefit to Mississippi customers.
We’re seeing such a saga play out in Maryland. A planned 76 mile long transmission line will run through the state to bring more power to the AI data centers in northern Virginia, the veritable data center capital of the world. Landowners whose land lies in its path have vehemently opposed its construction, arguing that the state is being used as an “extension cord” for the AI data centers.
The power company behind the project, PSEG, sued landowners for access to their property so they could conduct surveys, and a federal district court allowed the company to go ahead. But the landowners launched an appeal, which is still awaiting a decision.
Every state’s different, but the Maryland case illustrates that power companies will face plenty of obstacles if they want to just steamroll over people’s land. Walayat predicted that “arguments around whether additional transmission lines actually serve in-state customers may give landowners grounds for a challenge.”
More on AI: OpenAI Appears to Be Missing Its Sales Goals by a Vast Margin
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