India’s 1st Humanoid AI Teacher Introduced in Kerala School

Thiruvananthapuram: Iris, India’s first humanoid AI teacher was unveiled at the KTCT Higher Secondary School in Kallambalam in Kerala’s capital city.

This humanoid draped in a saree listens to questions from students, and then a necklace on her changes colour from green to orange, before she utters out the answer with informative details.

The Iris humanoid moves on four wheels turns its head both ways, and can also move its hands. The microphones are kept as a necklace on Iris, and it uses a speaker to talk back.

Makerlabs Edutech Private Limited has helped in the development of this AI-based teacher as part of an initiative of the Atal Tinkering Lab at the school.

Iris works on the generative AI principle with a capacity to convert voice into texts and also texts into voice. It can handle three languages and even shake hands with the students on request. It can also tell stories to the children.

Iris can answer any question either from the syllabus or anything under the sun, in no time, with examples and references.

But Iris cannot answer the questions of the children if the classroom is noisy as a disturbed network connection and the chatter from the children slows down Iris as it tries to catch the noises, presuming them to be questions asked to ‘her’. When there was too much noise, Iris took time to process the question.

The next step is to add camera ‘eyes’ to Iris so that she will identify each student and answer their questions. In future, she would be more interactive and completely automated.

Iris will not replace the real teachers as it does not understand emotions and cannot care. It is a support system for the teaching staff of the school.