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A high school in Germany has become the first to host a humanoid robot as a teacher, with Captcha the Robot carrying out a day of lectures and debates.
It was just ahead of Christmas, on December 17, when Captcha the Robot officially took over a class for the first time in Delmenhorst in Germany.
The robot started the day by conducting an interactive lecture called ‘The difference between how AI thinks and how humans think,’ which involved the humanoid asking the students numerous questions to ensure they understood.
This is Captcha, an #AI robot teaching a class on ‘its kind,’ an experiment the school says is a first in Europe pic.twitter.com/rBSidyJexG
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) December 21, 2024
Shortly after, Captcha ‘spoke’ to journalists before moving on to moderating a debate that focused on five topics:
- Should AI be allowed to make and spend their own money?
- Should relationships between people and AI be legalised?
- Is the world going to end because of AI within 10 years?
- Who should be held responsible for any crimes committed by an AI: developers, users or AI itself?
- Does AI help the cause of fake news or make it worse?
The company which has created the robot, Hidoba Research, explains that for “each topic Captcha was an unbiased moderator and judged the ‘For’ and ‘Against’ teams based only on how convincing and structured their logical arguments are.”
What is Captcha the Robot? The first to teach a class in a high school
The company that created Captcha has dubbed it a “social robot” that “sells for you, teaches with you, understands you.”
The ‘personality’ of the humanoid can be adjusted, with the default being set as ‘cheeky teenager boy.’
Its other capabilities include speaking five languages (primarily in English), realistic gaze and face-tracking, and natural speech flow.
As well as its debut as a teacher and moderator, the robot has appeared on a university campus in Massachusetts, attended multiple summits, and even ridden on public transport.
Captcha has been photographed taking the AmTrak train from Boston to New York in January of 2024, as well as commuting on a bus in Brooklyn.
Featured Image: Credit to Hidoba Research//Screenshot from video published by Reuters
