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The event easily evoked dystopian dreams of the future — notably ones in which the humble (human) school teacher has been replaced by a Terminator-shaped server stack that can walk and speak Latin.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 personalized experience, adaptive to the needs of each student. Plato is always patient, and always available. Predictably, our children will develop deeper critical thinking and independent reasoning abilities.”
“Honored to be invited to the White House by the First Lady Melania Trump,” the Figure AI X account posted Wednesday.
The First Lady’s comments are obviously forward-looking and don’t reflect where robotics and edtech are today, or will be anytime soon. Still, the thinking that AI and technology can be used to automate learning (and, in many ways, replace human educators) has been gaining in popularity in the tech industry. Such ideas have been repeatedly promoted by the White House.
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Over the past year, educational experiments like the Alpha School, a network of private schools that use AI to teach children at rapid speed, have gained traction and media attention.
The Trump administration has embraced experiments like these, while simultaneously attacking the traditional public education system.
Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon, who is in the midst of abolishing the very agency she is tasked with running, has also found the time to visit an Alpha School campus, where she recently praised the “opportunity” promised by the educational chain.
“Alpha School is reimagining K–12 education by equipping students with practical AI skills and preparing them for a rapidly evolving technology-driven workforce,” the administration recently said, of McMahon’s visit.
Melania Trump’s event Wednesday similarly highlighted the role that the administration feels the tech industry should play in the future of American education — with Trump recognizing the “participation of leading American technology companies, whose engagement reflects the growing role of the private sector in supporting safe and effective educational innovation.”
