Generative AI teacher lands job in Indian high school

The new-age high school humanoid teacher is equipped with an Intel processor and a dedicated coprocessor to provide personalized learning experiences to students.

A high school in Kerala, India, has appointed an artificial intelligence (AI) teacher that uses generative AI to provide personalized education to the students. 

Fears of AI taking over have grown as the technology develops, with industries like coding, videography and writing under threat. However, KTCT Higher Secondary School in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, added teaching to the list after becoming the first to hire an AI humanoid.

The new-age high school teacher is equipped with an Intel processor and a dedicated coprocessor.

The AI teacher, Iris, was developed in partnership with e-learning provider Makerlabs as part of the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) project by NITI Aayog, an Indian government agency.

The humanoid can speak three languages and respond to complex questions. According to Makerlabs, the AI teacher was purpose-built to provide personalized learning to each student. “By adapting to each student’s needs and preferences, IRIS empowers educators to deliver engaging and effective lessons like never before,” the company said.

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The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently issued an advisory stating that tech companies developing new lab-level AI tools need government approval prior to public release on the internet.

According to the advisory released by the Indian IT ministry on March 1, this approval must be granted before the public release of AI tools that are “unreliable” or still in a trial phase, and such tools should be labeled for possibly providing inaccurate answers to queries. The ministry added:

“Availability to the users on Indian Internet must be done so with explicit permission of the Government of India.”

This new advisory comes shortly after one of India’s top ministers called out Google and its AI tool Gemini for its inaccurate or biased responses, including one saying that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been characterized by some as a fascist.