{"id":666,"date":"2026-06-29T23:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=666"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:14:41","slug":"why-is-a-san-diego-charter-school-spending-500000-on-two-humanoid-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=666","title":{"rendered":"Why Is a San Diego Charter School Spending $500,000 on Two Humanoid Robots?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you were a charter school with a cool half a million to drop, what would you spend it on? Budgeting for multiple new teachers? Perhaps expanding your curriculum or purchasing new teaching materials? Funding some sort of overseas trip to broaden your students\u2019 horizons? Capital expenditure on your campus? Scholarships for underprivileged kids?<\/p>\n

Read more Anthropic Fires Back at Snitch Amazon CEO<\/a><\/p>\n

If you answered any of the above, that\u2019s why you\u2019re not running a charter school. The correct<\/em> answer is \u201cbuying two humanoid robots to lurk in your classrooms and function as fancy mouthpieces for ChatGPT.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, at least, that\u2019s what San Diego charter school chain Altus Schools has decided. According to local news site Voice of San Diego, the school has spent $500,000 on two Ameca robots, a model described by its manufacturer, British-based company Engineered Arts,\u00a0 as \u201cthe world\u2019s most advanced social humanoid robot.\u201d The Ameca\u2014which looks like a cross between Natalie Portman in Ex Machina<\/em> and the sadly underutilized shape-changing android Kamelion from Fifth Doctor-era Doctor Who<\/em>\u2014apparently features \u201c61 actuated degrees of freedom, allowing for natural and lifelike movements\u201d and \u201ca sophisticated communication system [that] enables multilingual conversations with advanced voice synthesis and personalization options for engaging human-robot interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The story is even wilder than it looks at first glance, too, because Voice of San Diego also acquired an from the school\u2019s principal Cathryn Rambo, in which she professes to be \u201cthrilled to be the first school in the world researching the use of physical AI as a teaching partner,\u201d going on to explain that \u201cthis initiative is part of a research study examining how AI can enhance student engagement and learning outcomes,\u201d and that \u201cwe plan to have Ameca onsite until Fall 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

So, wait: what is this $500,000 actually getting the school? Engineered Arts\u2019 site doesn\u2019t provide a price for the Ameca, instead inviting potential buyers to request a quote, but this review puts the price at between $100,000 and $500,000, depending on configuration. If Altus is spending $500,000 on two robots, they\u2019re costing $250,000 each, which sounds like it should be enough for a purchase\u2014in which case, why are they only onsite for a few months? And whatever the cost, why is Altus paying six figures to provide data for a study? What is\u00a0<\/em>this study? Who\u2019s conducting it?<\/p>\n

Financial and ethical considerations aside, you might also find yourself wondering what the robots actually do<\/em>. The answer appears to be that they function as a mouthpiece for a restricted version of ChatGPT. This, of course, raises the question of whether LLMs should be anywhere near a classroom, especially given that some experts are calling for an immediate ban on chatbot use by children.<\/p>\n

Read more Don\u2019t Be Afraid of Self-Improving AI, Says a16z-Backed Startup Mirendil<\/a><\/p>\n

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And even if for whatever reason a school does decide that LLMs have some utility in education\u2014a decision that\u2019d be based on vibes, because it sure as hell ain\u2019t based on research\u2014it\u2019s unclear why you need to spend six figures on a weird robot to embody them, especially since it sounds like the experience of interacting with one of these things is awkward and difficult. Voice of San Diego sent a reporter to the school to watch a lesson wherein one of the robots pretended to be Nikola Tesla, in an interaction that even Rambo conceded was \u201cclunky\u201d:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe interaction was rife with stops and starts[\u2026]. Throughout it all, the robot spoke too quickly for the students[\u2026]. They ultimately asked it to repeat its Tesla introduction three additional times as they scribbled away dutifully.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This would be all fun and games if charter schools didn\u2019t get to do stuff like this while also merrily accepting public money. On average, the US Public Education system spends about $16,500 per student in a given year; California\u2019s spending is a little higher, at an average of $21,600. (If you\u2019re wondering, the District of Columbia has the highest per-student figure at $37,300, while Idaho brings up the rear with $11,200.) That means you could fund 23 kids\u2019 education for a year with the $500,000 spent on these robots, and still have change for some new books or something.<\/p>\n

But no, instead Altus Schools are spending half a million dollars to buy\u2014or maybe rent\u2014two glorified chatbots for a few months, all while providing data to someone else\u2019s study. If I were a parent whose kid was at one of these schools, I\u2019d have many, many questions for Rambo at the next parent\/teacher conference.<\/p>\n

Read more Meta Fury AI Glasses Review: The Worst Company Still Makes the Best Smart Glasses<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is half a million dollars really worth a bad Nikola Tesla impersonation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Is a San Diego Charter School Spending $500,000 on Two Humanoid Robots? - Long Haul Moving Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=666\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Is a San Diego Charter School Spending $500,000 on Two Humanoid Robots? - Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is half a million dollars really worth a bad Nikola Tesla impersonation?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=666\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-29T23:14:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\"},\"headline\":\"Why Is a San Diego Charter School Spending $500,000 on Two Humanoid Robots?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-29T23:14:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666\"},\"wordCount\":791,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bb8c00c410ddd82a68072fd08f4e06a1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Artificial Intelligence\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=666\",\"name\":\"Why Is a San Diego Charter School Spending $500,000 on Two Humanoid Robots? 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