Meet the roboprofessor

Bina48 became the first robot to co-teach a university class when she helped lead a course at West Point, the U.S. Military academy, according to Axios.

The humanoid AI taught two sessions of a philosophy course, with topics ranging from ethics, just war theory and use of artificial intelligence in society, which is pretty meta.

William Barry, who has been using Bina48 to teach for several years, decided to put the robot in front of students in the classroom to see if she could ‘support a liberal education model.’

There were about 100 students in Bina48’s class. Before classes began, she prepped by downloading data about philosophy course material, as well as Barry’s lesson plan.

Barry referred to this material as ‘mind files.’

‘We asked not to hook her on the internet…because she can easily run to Wikipedia or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,’ Barry told Axios.

‘We want to run her just on the algorithm.’

She’s able to recall information from background knowledge to deliver the lecture, as well as immediately answer questions asked by students.

In having Bina48 teach the class, they hoped to better understand how AI can be used in the classroom and how it effects students’ comprehension, as well as their interest in the material in front of them.

‘Before the class, they thought it might be too gimmicky or be entertainment,’ Barry told Axios.

‘They were blown away because she was able to answer questions and reply with nuance.

‘The interesting part was that [the cadets] were taking notes,’ he added.

However, despite the students’ welcome reception of the bot, they ultimately decided not to have Bina48 stay on as professor.

Bina48 had trouble staying on pace with the class, potentially making her more suited for countries with low literacy rates, Barry said, according to Axios.

The robot was surprisingly qualified to teach the course on her own.

Bina48 graduated from a 16-week college course last year in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University in California.

Barry taught the class and honed Bina48’s AI to capture knowledge about the course.

She was able to listen to classes via Skype and ask questions.

What’s more, Bina48 was able to take part in a debate with students at West Point around the subject of nonlethal weapons in warfare.

Bina48 was first unveiled in 2012 and was developed by entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt, who created the robot as a clone of her actual wife, Bina.

The robot shares the ideas and personality of Bina by creating a database of her memories, beliefs and thoughts, along with information taken from social media interactions and blogs she shares.

This allows the robot, called Bina48, to express opinions and interact in conversations like a real, living person.

Mrs Rothblatt, 60, an internet radio entrepreneur who lives as a transgender woman, believes the these ‘Mind Clones’ could eventually be used to help provide social interactions for people living alone and even help recreate the personalities of people after they have died.

They spent more than 100 hours then compiling all of Bina’s memories, feelings and beliefs onto a computer database.

This allows Bina48 to draw on this information to engage in conversation.

Daily Mail

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