Melania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child | TechCrunch

At a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, First Lady Melania Trump showed up with a humanoid robot developed by robotics firm Figure AI. The duo waltzed down a red carpet together before the bot gave a brief speech, chirping: “I am grateful to be part of this historic movement to empower children with technology and education.” Not long after these remarks, the machine mosied out of the room and disappeared. The bizarre spectacle was part of the first lady’s newly launched initiative, the Fostering the Future Together global summit, which invited international leaders from around the world to discuss how to empower children through educational technology, including AI. The event easily evoked dystopian dreams of the future — notably ones in which the humble (human) school teacher has been replaced by a Terminator-shaped server stack that can walk and speak Latin. Indeed, during her remarks, the first lady asked attendees to envision a future in which a humanoid robot would act as the ultimate educator for the world’s children. (The event took place at the same time the Trump administration announced a separate tech council staffed by jet-setting Silicon Valley executives.) “Imagine a humanoid educator named Plato,” the first lady said. “Access to the classical studies is now instantaneous — literature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics, and history — Humanity’s entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home. Plato will provide a pers...