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A new AI chatbot might do your homework for you. But it's still not an A+ student

Emma Bowman

Enter a prompt into ChatGPT, and it becomes your very own virtual assistant. OpenAI/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

Enter a prompt into ChatGPT, and it becomes your very own virtual assistant.

Why do your homework when a chatbot can do it for you? A new artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT has thrilled the Internet with its superhuman abilities to solve math problems, churn out college essays and write research papers.

After the developer OpenAI released the text-based system to the public last month, some educators have been sounding the alarm about the potential that such AI systems have to transform academia, for better and worse.

"AI has basically ruined homework," said Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, on Twitter.

The tool has been an instant hit among many of his students, he told NPR in an interview on Morning Edition , with its most immediately obvious use being a way to cheat by plagiarizing the AI-written work, he said.

Academic fraud aside, Mollick also sees its benefits as a learning companion.

Opinion: Machine-made poetry is here

He's used it as his own teacher's assistant, for help with crafting a syllabus, lecture, an assignment and a grading rubric for MBA students.

"You can paste in entire academic papers and ask it to summarize it. You can ask it to find an error in your code and correct it and tell you why you got it wrong," he said. "It's this multiplier of ability, that I think we are not quite getting our heads around, that is absolutely stunning," he said.

A convincing — yet untrustworthy — bot

But the superhuman virtual assistant — like any emerging AI tech — has its limitations. ChatGPT was created by humans, after all. OpenAI has trained the tool using a large dataset of real human conversations.

"The best way to think about this is you are chatting with an omniscient, eager-to-please intern who sometimes lies to you," Mollick said.

It lies with confidence, too. Despite its authoritative tone, there have been instances in which ChatGPT won't tell you when it doesn't have the answer.

That's what Teresa Kubacka, a data scientist based in Zurich, Switzerland, found when she experimented with the language model. Kubacka, who studied physics for her Ph.D., tested the tool by asking it about a made-up physical phenomenon.

"I deliberately asked it about something that I thought that I know doesn't exist so that they can judge whether it actually also has the notion of what exists and what doesn't exist," she said.

ChatGPT produced an answer so specific and plausible sounding, backed with citations, she said, that she had to investigate whether the fake phenomenon, "a cycloidal inverted electromagnon," was actually real.

When she looked closer, the alleged source material was also bogus, she said. There were names of well-known physics experts listed – the titles of the publications they supposedly authored, however, were non-existent, she said.

"This is where it becomes kind of dangerous," Kubacka said. "The moment that you cannot trust the references, it also kind of erodes the trust in citing science whatsoever," she said.

Scientists call these fake generations "hallucinations."

"There are still many cases where you ask it a question and it'll give you a very impressive-sounding answer that's just dead wrong," said Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI , who ran the research nonprofit until recently. "And, of course, that's a problem if you don't carefully verify or corroborate its facts."

Users experimenting with the chatbot are warned before testing the tool that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information." OpenAI/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

An opportunity to scrutinize AI language tools

Users experimenting with the free preview of the chatbot are warned before testing the tool that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information," harmful instructions or biased content.

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, said earlier this month it would be a mistake to rely on the tool for anything "important" in its current iteration. "It's a preview of progress," he tweeted .

The failings of another AI language model unveiled by Meta last month led to its shutdown. The company withdrew its demo for Galactica, a tool designed to help scientists, just three days after it encouraged the public to test it out, following criticism that it spewed biased and nonsensical text.

Untangling Disinformation

Ai-generated fake faces have become a hallmark of online influence operations.

Similarly, Etzioni says ChatGPT doesn't produce good science. For all its flaws, though, he sees ChatGPT's public debut as a positive. He sees this as a moment for peer review.

"ChatGPT is just a few days old, I like to say," said Etzioni, who remains at the AI institute as a board member and advisor. It's "giving us a chance to understand what he can and cannot do and to begin in earnest the conversation of 'What are we going to do about it?' "

The alternative, which he describes as "security by obscurity," won't help improve fallible AI, he said. "What if we hide the problems? Will that be a recipe for solving them? Typically — not in the world of software — that has not worked out."

New AI chatbot can do students' homework for them

Quebec teachers brace for chatgpt helping students cheat.

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On the first day of class this semester, Laurent Nicolas didn't just go over his course outline.

The English teacher showed his students how ChatGPT — artificial intelligence chat software that has consumed huge quantities of data to generate original, human-like responses — could complete a written assignment in a matter of seconds.

Nicolas, who teaches at Collège André-Grasset, a private college in Montreal, asked ChatGPT to write a gothic poem about rock climbing. The response came moments later:

With every step, my heart beats fast, As I reach for the next hold tight, The echoes of the past, Whisper secrets in the night.

But one of Nicolas's students was already familiar with the bot. He raised his hand and shared that he'd used it to write an essay the previous semester.

Faced with the explosive attention ChatGPT has garnered since it was made publicly available last fall, Quebec teachers are grappling with how to manage — or make the most of — the AI program in their classrooms.

A new frontier for plagiarism

Jeremy Klughaupt, an English teacher at Collège de Maisonneuve, typed some of his essay questions into the program, and was horrified by the result.

In less than a minute, the AI spat out responses comparable with the work some of his students might produce.

Klughaupt said many of his colleagues are "pulling their hair out," unsure how to proceed with their course plans and evaluations. Spotting and dealing with assignments completed by Google Translate was already a challenge. Now, with ChatGPT at his students' fingertips, he worries that the potential for fraud and plagiarism grows as this technology continues to evolve.

"As teachers, a lot of us feel torn between these two roles that we have: to educate and, increasingly, to police students," Klughaupt said.

Teachers in his department are considering abandoning take-home writing assignments. But that is a decision he is not yet prepared to make. Students hone their writing skills when engaged in long-term, immersive projects, which can't all be done in the classroom, he said.

Andrew Piper, professor in the department of languages, literatures and cultures at McGill University, agrees.

"We don't want to just get rid of essay writing," he said on CBC Montreal's Daybreak . "Writing is a fabulous way to figure out what you're trying to say and develop your thoughts and has been for a long stretch of human history."

However, Piper believes the risks go beyond academic integrity. The program's ability to easily generate massive amounts of text, which can be personalized, targeted and convincing, is a cause for concern.

"The problem is, [ChatGPT] doesn't really understand how the world works," said Piper. "It doesn't actually know if something's true. And so in certain cases, that can lead to misinformation…. There's nothing in the system that sort of flags itself."

The Quebec Ministry of Education is assessing the impacts of the technology on student learning and teacher work, especially with regard to ministerial exams. Meanwhile, in New York, ChatGPT is banned in all public schools due to concerns about its impact on learning and with its accuracy.

Harnessing the power of AI

But not all Quebec educators are worried. In fact, some are optimistic about ChatGPT and the possible emergence of AI in the province's schools.

Educators like Walcir Cardoso, professor of linguistics at Concordia University, are hoping teachers harness its power to enhance the quality of education.

Cardoso thinks ChatGPT can be effective in improving students' vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Teachers should also consider alternatives to essays like debates and pre-recorded presentations, he said.

As for precautions, Cardoso proposes that teachers test the AI for responses to essay questions. And he suggests students should be free to cite the chatbot for certain assignments, as long as they are transparent.

"If students want to plagiarize, they will, regardless of what is available," said Cordoso.

• Experts and educators say viral AI tool ChatGPT brings challenges
• Curveball or game changer? ChatGPT, AI tools under watch on Canadian campuses

For its part, the Lester B. Pearson School Board is still assessing the opportunities and pitfalls that come with ChatGPT.

"It's very early on in the arrival of this technology to really be sure of what the power of it is and how it can be used effectively in the class," said Mat Canavan, director of education services at Lester B. Pearson School Board.

But he knows that if ignored, "it's going to come back and bite us" due to how quickly ChatGPT can complete an assignment.

Canavan says educators need to adapt and make the most of the tools available to them and their students. This means shifting learning to focus on creativity, voice and process — things the bot can't imitate.

"How do we incorporate artificial intelligence into the work that we're doing to make it so a student can learn deeper?" he said.

"In every instance where there's new technology that comes along, it causes a knee-jerk fear reaction. But it also creates the potential for more evolved and or in depth learning."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joe Bongiorno is a journalist, author and former high school teacher. He has reported for CBC, Canadian Geographic, Maisonneuve, Canada’s National Observer and others.

With files from CBC Montreal's Daybreak

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Do your homework

Are your students using AI bots to do theirs? After all, AI is readily available and capable as we found out

We gave ChatGPT a prompt to ‘write an editorial (300 words) for a readership of teachers on the danger of students using AI bots to do their homework for them’. This what it produced:

Source: © Shutterstock

Could you spot a chemistry homework written by an AI bot?

As teachers, we have all seen the impact that technology can have on the classroom. From smartphones and tablets to educational software and online resources, there are countless tools that can help our students learn and grow. However, there is also a dark side to technology in education, and it is something that we need to be aware of and address.

One of the biggest concerns is the use of AI bots to do students’ homework for them. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the increasing availability of AI-powered tools, it is becoming easier and easier for students to use these bots to complete their assignments without actually learning the material.

We need to make it clear that cheating is unacceptable

On the surface, this may seem like a harmless way for students to save time and effort, but it is actually a serious problem for several reasons. First and foremost, using AI bots to do homework undermines the entire purpose of education. The goal of homework is to reinforce the concepts that students are learning in class, not to simply churn out answers without understanding them. By using AI bots to do their homework, students are cheating themselves out of a valuable learning opportunity.

Furthermore, using AI bots to do homework sets a dangerous precedent. It teaches students that they can take shortcuts and cheat their way through school, rather than putting in the hard work and effort that are necessary for success. This attitude can carry over into other areas of their lives, leading to a lack of motivation and a lack of real-world skills.

As teachers, it is our responsibility to educate our students about the dangers of using AI bots to do their homework. We need to make it clear that cheating is unacceptable and that the only way to truly learn and grow is through hard work and dedication. By taking a strong stance on this issue, we can help our students develop the skills and values that will serve them well throughout their lives. 

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How to use AI to help with Homework

Homework is meant to reinforce classroom lessons and develop critical thinking skills. Yet stacked assignments with confusing concepts and tight deadlines often leave students overwhelmed and lacking deeply understood foundations.

This is where AI homework helper apps come in - your personalized tutor available 24/7 to explain challenging material conversationally until clarity clicks. AI capabilities transform homework from isolated frustration to engaging progression.

Let's explore top techniques for responsibly leveraging AI to master tricky homework across academic subjects. Say goodbye to late nights guessing answers alone!

Why Students Struggle Through Homework Alone

Attempting to power through homework solo often backfires due to:

1. Ambiguous Instructions - Remembering exact formatting needs or creative constraints can be tough. And complex academic language leaves guesswork for what a question is even asking.

2. Foundational Knowledge Gaps - New lessons build on assumed comprehended concepts from past courses. When fundamentals remain foggy, new material confuses further.

3. Fixed Resources - Attempting to teach yourself new material with just a textbook or sparse online searching provides limited perspectives. Some learning styles need alternate explanations.

4. Tight Deadlines - Getting stuck on one aspect delays completing further questions. And grading pressures magnify anxiety attempting new skills without sample applications.

"The assigned readings felt almost like a foreign language. I understood the overall topic but couldn't grasp key theories well enough to answer homework prompts correctly."

Thankfully AI advancement now provides students customizable support previously unavailable.

Why AI is a Game Changer for Personalized Academic Help

AI homework assistants excel by:

Explaining Concepts Conversationally - Using natural language interactions, AI helps break down confusing aspects into digestible steps while allowing iterative follow-up questions.

Meeting You At Your Level - AI assessment of knowledge gaps lets its explanations start basic before advancing to higher complexity tailored to you.

Providing Visual Examples - Rendering study aid graphics, idea maps, charts and more to suit different learning preferences with visuals assisting memory retention.

Recommending Related Resources - Suggesting complementary videos, textbook sections, online sources to dive deeper across diverse media.

Unlike one-size-fits-all paper textbooks, AI tutors adapt to individuals' pacing and trouble spots for true personalization. Students gain both autonomy and support exactly when needed.

AI technology has been a game changer for understanding the more complex concepts covered in my courses. Asking follow-up questions until a light bulb moment occurs with the AI tutor has led to huge academic confidence boosts and submitting homework on time without guesswork.

Now let's see step-by-step how leading homework helper platforms enable transformative assistance...

A Walkthrough of AI Homework Helpers in Action

Tools like Just Think make it simple to tap into AI knowledge without any app downloads. Here's how students can get homework clarity:

1. Submit Your Homework Question

Snap a photo of the question, copy/paste long-form text prompts into the app interface, or dictate queries aloud via voice notes. This initial input captures the assignment details to be solved.

2. Receive Detailed AI Explanations

The AI homework assistant then gets to work analyzing the question and your knowledge gaps before delivering personalized explanations to teach you step-by-step techniques for solving problems successfully.

Visual elements are incorporated where helpful to simplify complex processes through relationship mappings. Diagrams enhance memory and application for tricky concepts.

3. Ask Iterative Follow-Up Questions

Confused still? The AI allows back and forth dialogue through additional questions from you, then answering conversationally with tweaked vocabulary and examples tailored to the obstacles in your comprehension.

This interactivity removes feelings of being stuck on your own, instead building momentum towards that satisfied "aha!" moment.

Subjects Where AI Homework Help Excels

Here are academic areas where students gain the most from AI writing and comprehension support:

• Algebra, calculus, statistics concepts explained conversationally
• Step-by-step guidance on solving equations
• Personalized approaches if gaps in foundations
• Breaking down complex physics, chemistry, biology theories through diagrams
• Supplemental readings for enhanced understanding
• Math foundations refreshers relevant to scientific formulas
• Timeline visualizations for context around key events, people
• Primary source analyses
• Comparing biases and angles across historians

English Literature

• Summarizing themes across lengthy assigned readings
• Essay starter frameworks tuned to paper requirements
• Grammar and syntax error flagging for polished prose
• Real-time fixes for improving logic flow and efficiency
• Debugging assistance
• Code readability assessments

And many additional academic subjects are supported and expanding further as AI models continuously advance.

Responsible AI Usage for Optimizing Homework

With great power comes great responsibility. While collaborating with an AI homework helper unlocks huge efficiency gains, students should:

1. Use AI Explanations as Learning Springboards

The goal remains deeply comprehending material yourself, not just copying answers. Treat AI guidance as a tutor for unlocking clarity - master concepts explained to cement foundations.

2. Customize Guidance Around Your Strengths/Weaknesses

AI allows playbooks personalized for each student. Be transparent on knowledge gaps needing work so its approach targets areas precisely needing reinforcement.

3. Double Check AI Recommendations

As robust as underlying models may be, the chance of inaccuracies exists. Verify suggestions and fact check against other reputable sources when uncertain.

Following these best practices keeps your growth as the focus while responsibly optimizing academics.

Additional Homework Help Applications

While tackling challenging assignments takes prime advantage of AI powered homework assistance , students can utilize these personalized benefits for:

Studying & Exam Prep - Using conversational questioning to solidify understanding of core curriculum concepts across every subject.

Paper Proofreading & Editing - Getting objective feedback on draft coherence, grammar issues, and areas needing deeper analysis.

1-on-1 Lesson Support - Getting personalized tutoring from AI on topics you struggle most with via ongoing dialogue tailored to the obstacles blocking you.

Interactive Coding Environments - AI suggests tweaks for improving coding project efficiency, structure and offers industry best practice guidance relative to experience level.

The Future of AI & Education

As artificial intelligence research continues steadily improving machine learning models in areas like natural language processing, virtually every academic field will transform.

We're already seeing homework helper platforms acceleration due to capabilities like:

• Answering open-ended questions, not just formulas
• Lifelike dialogue vs rigid responses
• Faster processing of handwritten work
• Personalize guidance around dynamic knowledge

And in the coming years, increasing accountability around model transparency and ethical development will further cement AI assistants as trusted tutors. Soon getting stuck on assignments even in advanced courses will feel like a relic of the past.

Homework that once overwhelmed students attempting to teach themselves now has a personalized AI tutor reachable 24/7. Platforms like Just Think enable moving from confusion to clarity through natural dialogue tailored exactly to individual needs - no matter the academic subject.

With iterative Q&A sessions unlocking foundational comprehension at your own pace plus visual aids accelerating practical applications, homework levels up from isolated frustration to rewarding skill progression thanks to AI's expanded support.

So next time an assignment has you questioning abilities alone late into the night, empower yourself instead with an AI study buddy right by your side until that grades-boosting "aha!" moment. The future of learning looks abundantly bright.

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

Google is training its robots to be more like humans

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Researchers here at Google’s lab recently asked a robot to build a burger out of various plastic toy ingredients.

The mechanical arm knew enough to add ketchup after the meat and before the lettuce, but thought the right way to do so was to put the entire bottle inside the burger.

While that robot won’t be working as a line cook any time soon, it is representative of a bigger breakthrough announced by Google engineers on Tuesday. Using recently developed artificial intelligence software known as large language models, the researchers say they’ve been able to design robots that can help humans with a broader range of everyday tasks.

Instead of providing a laundry list of instructions — directing each of the robot’s movements one by one — the robots can now respond to complete requests, more like a human.

In one demonstration last week, a researcher told a robot, “I’m hungry, can you get me a snack?” The robot then proceeded to search through a cafeteria, open a drawer, find a bag of chips, and bring it to the human.

It’s the first time language models have been integrated into robots, Google’s execs and researchers say.

“This is very fundamentally a different paradigm,” says Brian Ichter, a research scientist at Google and one of the authors of a new paper released Tuesday describing the progress the company has made.

Robots are already commonplace. Millions of them work in factories around the world, but they follow specific instructions and usually only focus on one or two tasks, such as moving a product down the assembly line or welding two pieces of metal together. The race to build a robot that can do a range of everyday tasks, and learn on the job, is much more complex. Tech companies big and small have labored to build such general-purpose robots for years.

Big Tech builds AI with bad data. So scientists sought better data.

Language models work by taking huge amounts of text uploaded to the internet and using it to train artificial intelligence software to guess what kinds of responses might come after certain questions or comments. The models have become so good at predicting the right response that engaging with one often feels like having a conversation with a knowledgeable human. Google and other companies, including OpenAI and Microsoft, have poured resources into building better models and training them on ever-bigger sets of text, in multiple languages.

The work is controversial. In July, Google fired one of its employees who had claimed he believed the software was sentient. The consensus among AI experts is that the models are not sentient, but many are concerned that they exhibit biases because they’ve been trained on huge amounts of unfiltered, human-generated text.

Some language models have shown themselves to be racist or sexist , or easily manipulated into spouting hate speech or lies when prompted with the right statements or questions.

In general, language models could give robots knowledge of high-level planning steps, said Carnegie Mellon assistant professor Deepak Pathak, who studies AI and robotics and was commenting on the field, not specifically Google. But those models won’t give robots all the information they need — for example, how much force to apply when opening a refrigerator. That knowledge has to come from somewhere else.

“It solves only the high-level planning issue,” he said.

Still, Google is forging ahead, and has now melded the language models with some of its robots. Now, instead of having to encode specific technical instructions for each task a robot can do, researchers can simply talk to them in everyday language. Even more importantly, the new software helps the robots parse complex multistep instructions on their own. Now, the robots can interpret instructions they’ve never heard before and come up with responses and actions that make sense.

These robots were trained on AI. They became racist and sexist.

Robots that can use language models could change how manufacturing and distribution facilities are run, said Zac Stewart Rogers, a supply chain management assistant professor from Colorado State University.

“A human and a robot working together is always the most productive” now, he said. “Robots can do manual heavy lifting. Humans can do the nuanced troubleshooting.”

If robots were able to figure out complex tasks, it could mean that distribution centers could be smaller, with fewer humans and more robots. That could mean fewer jobs for people, though Rogers points out that generally when there is a contraction due to automation in one area, jobs are created in other areas.

It’s also probably still a long way away. Artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks and reinforcement learning have been used to train robots for years. It’s led to some breakthroughs, but progress is still slow. Google’s robots are nowhere near ready for the real world, and in interviews, Google’s researchers and execs said repeatedly they are simply running a research lab and do not have plans to commercialize the technology yet.

But it’s clear Google and other Big Tech companies have a serious interest in robotics. Amazon uses many robots in its warehouses, is experimenting with drone delivery and earlier this month agreed to buy the maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner robot for $1.7 billion . (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post).

Tesla says it is building a ‘friendly’ robot that will perform menial tasks, won’t fight back

Tesla, which has developed some autonomous driving features for its cars, is also working on general-purpose robots .

In 2013, Google went on a spending spree, buying several robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, the maker of the robot dogs that often go viral on social media. But the executive in charge of the program was accused of sexual misconduct, and left the company soon after. In 2017, Google sold Boston Dynamics to Japanese telecom and tech investment giant Softbank. The hype around ever-smarter robots designed by the most powerful tech companies faded.

In the language model project, Google researchers worked alongside those from Everyday Robots , a separate but wholly owned company inside Google that works specifically on building robots that can do a range of “repetitive” and “drudgerous” tasks. The bots are already at work in various Google cafeterias, wiping down counters and throwing out trash.

Google researchers worked alongside those from Everyday Robots, a separate but wholly owned company inside Google. An earlier version of this story incorrectly named the company. This story has been updated.

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Why HomeworkAI Is Your Go-To AI Homework Helper ?

What types of files can i upload to homeworkai.

HomeworkAI supports a variety of file formats, including text files such as PDF, DOC, DOCX, and image files like JPEG and PNG. This allows you to easily upload assignments, worksheets, and questions in the format that best suits your needs.

Is HomeworkAI suitable for all educational levels?

Yes, HomeworkAI is tailored for students and educational professionals of all levels—from middle schoolers to university undergrads—providing support and solutions customized to each educational stage.

Can HoweworkAI process practice questions from textbook material?

Yes. Simply upload the textbook material with practice questions, and our homework AI will analyze them to provide detailed solutions and explanations, just as it would with any other homework assignment or study query.

Does getting help from HomeworkAI considered cheating?

HomeworkAI is an AI question answerer designed to aid your learning process, much like a traditional tutor. Thus, utilizing HomeworkAI may not be considered cheating, as long as it aligns with your institution's guidelines for using external help.

Can I use HomeworkAI to prepare for my exam?

Absolutely, HomeworkAI can be an effective tool for exam preparation. It offers practice questions, solutions, and thorough explanations to help reinforce your understanding of the subject matter, giving you an extra edge in your study routine.

How does HomeworkAI handle problems with multiple solution methods?

HomeworkAI does have the ability to handle problems with multiple solution methods. It can provide a primary solution and, where applicable, may offer alternative approaches or explanations to give you a well-rounded understanding of the problem at hand.

Get Your Hands on The Best AI Homework Helper Right Now !

HomeworkAI doesn't just deliver answers—it teaches problem-solving, becoming your ultimate homework companion.

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This bot will do your homework for $9.95 a month. Does it actually work?

According to one 10th-grade history teacher, it’s unlikely to get you an A.

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“EssayBot is the highly acclaimed online platform giving essay writing assistance to students and subject authors. As the program has been produced with the most sophisticated tools and technologies, it is extremely automated and individualized. This US-based corporation works with the only purpose to give honest and convincing aid to authors for creating superior volumes that will get rewards and praises.”

That’s what EssayBot says when I asked it to describe itself. The service aims to be the holy grail for the world’s burnout 11th-graders. Type in your prompt — any prompt, from your history assignment to the question “what is EssayBot?” — and the machines get to work.

Your opening paragraph is pulled whole cloth from a database of scholastic material. Then the diction is gently rephrased, with synonyms swapped in for non-essential words, until it can fly under the radar of the average plagiarism detector. From there, you can import a laundry list of additional paragraphs related to the subject of your essay, or you can use a drop-down menu called a “sentence creator,” perched patiently next to your blinking cursor. Write a word and EssayBot does its best to think up a sensible follow-up clause, based on the contours and language of what you’ve already got written down. All this for only $9.95 a month, or $49.95 a year. If you’ve ever spent a sleepless school night staring at an empty Word doc, you know what it’s like to be desperate enough to pay up.

I discovered EssayBot via YouTube ad, and when I put the site’s name into Google, I found hundreds of cautiously hopeful students taking to forums and review sites over the past year, asking if EssayBot is too good to be true. Procrastinating teens are an underserved market.

Aaron Yin, the proprietor of EssayBot, has been trying to sell AI text generation for years with limited success. His first attempt came in 2017 with a service that automatically constructed résumés, and the tech infrastructure of EssayBot was initially intended to help small businesses generate branding copy. But that angle never took off. Instead, Yin needed to find a hungrier demographic, and the millions of young men and women on a humanities deadline were a match made in heaven. “We use the same technology [from the business writing] for EssayBot,” he says. “To help students write essays.”

Yin considers EssayBot to be a streamlined version of what kids are already doing with their papers. He tells me he held focus groups full of college kids during EssayBot’s initial development and found that they all used similar tactics to write their essays. They would research and copy down the finer points of the arguments they wanted to use, they would reword those passages, and they turned to Google Scholar to find citations. If you’re extremely generous in your interpretation, you can argue that EssayBot is essentially a harmless mechanization of the academic process — rather than, you know, cheating. “The technology is actually a little similar to translation,” says Yin. “You’re putting something in a different way.”

There’s reason to believe what Yin is selling. In 2019, AI text generation is closer to the mainstream than ever. In February, there was a brief mania over the Elon Musk-backed company OpenAI and its silver-tongued text generator. Journalists from Wired , the Guardian , The Verge , and Vox were all invited to play with the fancy new algorithm that could generate cohesive short stories with reasonably consistent clarity. The generator has yet to be released to the public, with OpenAI claiming that it was “too dangerous” in our current Facebook-poisoned news culture. No matter how hyperbolic that warning might be, it seemed we were fast approaching a world where machines could demand column space.

It’s a reality echoed by Neil Yager, the chief scientist and co-founder of Phrasee , an AI platform that formulates ideal, scientifically precise email headlines for press releases and marketing campaigns. He says that whether we realize it or not, we’re already reading a fair amount of computer-generated text as part of our media diet. “In things like weather reports, it’s called data to text. You take some numbers, like the humidity and temperature, and use an algorithm to automatically to spin that into a story,” he explains. “You have some simple logic in there. ‘If the temperature is above this, then say that it’s going to be a warm day.’ Robo-journalism is quite a big field.”

Still, it was difficult to believe that technology could adequately replicate a standard five-paragraph high school essay. Sure, EssayBot was able to introduce itself in its own uncanny syntax, but that was easy. How would it hold up in the eyes of a wary teacher? So I got my hands dirty in the EssayBot module and resolved to craft an essay about Brown v. Board of Education , a Supreme Court case any American student will inevitably write about at least once during their academic career.

EssayBot gave me a rock-solid opening paragraph, after which I was presented with a suite of additional paragraphs I could plug into the copy. As before, each of those paragraphs was plucked from the web and rephrased into something less plagiaristic by the site’s algorithm. I continued that process until I had about 700 words that tracked the basics of the trial and some light analysis about segregation in the public school system today. The results were uneven. The language and the facts were mostly reasonable, but the overall narrative was jumbled. The essay wasn’t tethered to a concrete thesis and read like a loose distillation dreamed up by an entity that knew all the information but wasn’t able to synthesize it into an authentic argument.

I decided to use the automatic sentence creator to fill out the conclusion, where things got funnier, and more dire. The sentences themselves were grammatically correct, but they’d often contradict each other within the text. At one point, EssayBot wanted to add “the solution is to change the way schools are run,” exactly one sentence after it added “the solution isn’t to simply change the way schools are run.” It figures that when you ask something non-sentient to write for you, you can expect something non-sentient in return.

So, naturally, when I emailed the essay to my 10th-grade history teacher Mr. Lourey, he gave it an easy F.

”The paper would probably earn a very low score in most classes, because it doesn’t seem to be clearly answering a prompt,” he wrote. “I guess if a teacher assigned a short essay that asked students to simply summarize an event, then maybe this type of paper could fly under the ‘teacher radar.’ But most properly designed writing prompts on civil rights would ask students to make some sort of original claim … even if I did not identify the paper as a creation of AI, it would earn a failing grade.”

His reaction didn’t surprise me, nor did it surprise Yager. An AI text generator like EssayBot is simply incapable of responding to a multifaceted essay proposal with a human point of view. Your best bet is simulacrum, and simulacrum can break down very, very quickly. In fact, Yager says Phrasee’s AI model starts to degenerate after about 150 words or so.

Algorithms “don’t write like how you or I would write an essay. It doesn’t think, ‘Okay, here’s my idea, and here’s how I’m going to argue this point.’ Instead, it’s writing one word at a time with no idea where it’s going,” he explains. “There’s no understanding there. It’s not trying to get any point across; any point it makes is purely random and accidental. That’s the limitation of the technology today. … It studies the statistical properties of the language and can generate new text that shares those properties.”

That said, Yager is a little concerned about the future. As tools like EssayBot get better and more AI software hits the market, there will eventually come a moment, he says, where text generation will be a major concern for academia. “Technology is going to help people cheat. It’ll be a bit of an arms race. Things will improve over time, and so will the detection methods,” he says. “Even now, though it’s not great quality, I bet people are getting away with it.”

Yin, of course, would never call EssayBot software for cheaters, and he says that over the past year, he’s only ever gotten one angry email from a teacher. He points to a service called Chegg , which provides specific answers to classroom textbook questions for $15 a month. EssayBot, in his comparison, is a research tool rather than a flat, rote cheat sheet. A shortcut rather than misconduct.

”A student could use Chegg [to answer a problem,] and after graduation, if they saw a similar question, they still couldn’t do it,” says Yin. “With EssayBot, after graduation, if a student became a marketing specialist and write marketing material, they could still use EssayBot.”

Perhaps one day we might need to formally establish the parameters for how much a robot is allowed to assist you in the writing process. Until then, be careful with the machines. They might just flunk you.

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Myths About Online High Schools: Everything You Need to Know

Reasons you should study geography: everything you need to know, the vtoman jump 1800 portable power station: the best of the best, key roles of a school superintendent: everything you need to know, why learners cheat: everything you need to know, top issues in education: everything you need to know, duties of a school principal: everything you need to know, private vs. public education: everything you need to know, choosing the perfect college: everything you need to know, common college freshmen fears: how to overcome them, why do homework, when you can make a robot do it.

Robots are infiltrating our daily lives. They are cleaning our floors, driving us around on campus or the golf course, operating on people, flipping hamburgers, and they’re teaching children in Asia. There are even robots like mBot that teaches kids about robotics.

Robots are meant to automate repetitive tasks, leaving humans free for more creative and rewarding endeavors. And what is more repetitive than having to copy text from a book several times?

The writing robot that can copy texts for students

Enter a very enterprising young Chinese teen. She used the money she received over Chinese New Year to buy a so-called copying robot to do her homework for her. In all fairness, the homework, in this case, was to copy passages from a textbook. Chinese teachers give this kind of homework, even during the Lunar Year holidays, so students can practice the thousands of Chinese characters that make up Mandarin Chinese.

The device, a metal frame, and pen comes with the marketing message that it could “imitate all sorts of handwriting”. In her case, the device performed perfectly, finishing all her homework in record time and in her handwriting. The incident was reported , including the destruction of the device by the girl’s mother. Far from being criticized for her dishonesty, the girl was praised by netizens for her initiative and the company that manufactures the writing robot has been inundated with inquiries ever since.

In an investigation, the South China Morning Post found several entries for a so-called “copying robot” on the e-commerce platform Taobao. It seems like a good idea to let a robot do something for you that is boring and repetitive, but you have to ask yourself if that’s a sensible thing to do. Surely you miss out on a learning opportunity if you let a robot do your work for you.

That doesn’t mean that robots cannot be useful when it comes to school homework. Rather than doing the work for you, your robot can help you to do the work and master the concepts in the curriculum. 

The robot that can do math homework

For kids who might feel burdened by too much homework, the future holds much promise. Christopher Yan and Derek He have come up with a concept of a homework-solving robot. Their prototype can solve math homework. What’s more, when it’s completed, the robot will be able to write the answers according to the user’s handwriting, so a teacher won’t suspect that the work was not done by the student. Their project known as Homework Help , picked up the top honors at this year’s PennApps, one of the largest student hackathons in the world, held at University of Pennsylvania.

It seems there is a need for robots that can help students with their homework. Scientists have noticed that children form close emotional bonds with social robots. It is not yet clear why this is so, but educators can exploit this to help students with their studies. Robots can, and do, add a fun aspect to learning. They can also add a fun aspect to homework.

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O penAI, the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, announced on Monday the upcoming release of a new model named GPT-4o. This model is designed to conduct realistic conversations and interact across both text and visual inputs.

The new features include enhanced audio capabilities, allowing users to speak to the robot and receive immediate responses without delays. Users can also interrupt ChatGPT while it is speaking, a functionality that developers have previously struggled to perfect, according to OpenAI during a live-streamed event about the new model.

"It feels like AI from the movies. It has never before felt natural for me to talk to a computer: it does now," wrote Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a blog post.

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Reuters reports that GPT-4o is the latest version of the technology used in ChatGPT, essentially acting as the engine behind the chatbot.

At Monday’s live-streamed event, OpenAI developers demonstrated the chatbot’s new capabilities. For instance, using the model’s visual skills and voice, ChatGPT helped one of the company's employees solve a mathematical equation written on a piece of paper.

In another demonstration, the model was used to translate from one language to another in real-time. When one developer expressed his delight at being able to showcase how "useful and fantastic you (ChatGPT) are," the model humorously responded, "Stop! You're making me blush!"

Following the event, Sam Altman posted a brief message on the social media platform X, stating "Her." According to Reuters, this is a reference to the 2013 movie Her , in which a man falls in love with his AI assistant, voiced by actress Scarlett Johansson.

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer, stated on Monday that the new model will be free because it is cheaper to operate than previous versions.

It will be available in the coming weeks, though specific regions where it will be available were not specified.

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Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Robotics

Look no farther than Kinvert’s Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Robotics. Which robots to get and which to avoid. Great for home and groups.

Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Robotics – Outline

Here is the outline to our Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Robotics:

• Why Should You Listen to Me? – You be the judge. A bit of my background.
• Importance – Why is it important for your kids to learn robotics?
• Where to Get Help – Several resources to help you get started
• How to Learn Before Teaching Your Kids – You can probably learn enough to get them started – Key Ideas
• Teaching at Home – How to get your kiddos learning this at home
• Groups / Co-Ops – Robotics is great in homeschool groups! How to get started.
• Programming Languages
• Graphical Vs Written
• What to avoid
• What to look for
• Which robots to avoid
• Which robots to buy
• Lego Limitations – Legos are great and all, but they are heavily over used in robotics
• Curriculum – How to choose/make your robotics for kids curriculum
• Helpful YouTube Videos – Helpful and free, what’s not to like?
• Books – Books that can help in your homeschool robotics journey
• Classes – Robotics classes you can take even in homeschool
• Field Trips – Where to go for a fun day learning robotics
• Online – Where to surf the web for robotics education
• How to Build Your Own Robot – The challenge is worth it
• Tools – What will you need to make this happen?
• Toys – The educational spectrum of robot toys
• Pitfalls – What could go wrong? Besides the robots taking over, keep an eye on these issues
• Related Subjects – There are some similar topics that you and your kids just might love!

Homeschool Robotics – Keith’s Background

A bit about me. I was in public school except for being homeschooled in 6th and 7th grade. Most likely I was a gifted kid but back then you’d just end up getting Ritalin thrown at you for such an offense. My interest in tech has always existed.

Winning the big CAD competition got me a lot of job offers, and I made enough money I thought I’d never go to college. Well the recession happened and I worked mostly in automotive.

Off to college I went, where I got a Mechanical Engineering degree and an Aerospace Engineering degree. Our robotics team won two competitions. I also did funded research and was a research assistant in autonomous vehicles and jet engine simulation.

That’s me in the middle. I’ve been teaching 4 years now.

My desire to help others in this important field made me leave behind my Engineering career. If you want to know more, you can read about me – Keith Young .

You can also read an article Anki, a robotics company, wrote about me https://developer.anki.com/blog/features/interview/from-stem-to-learn/

Homeschool Robotics – Importance

The job market is changing quickly. In 20 years things will be drastically different and that will largely be driven by robotics, coding, and other related fields.

Avoiding technological unemployment isn’t the only reason it’s important for everyone including homeschoolers to learn robotics. Besides the major changes needed in how governments control people, the next biggest issues are solvable with these important fields.

Think of the most important cause you can think of, and chances are it will be helped with teamwork, industriousness, problem solving skills, and technical skills.

We shape our world with our technology. It’s important to understand the technology, and to use it ethically.

But Keith, I Don’t Know Enough

First of all, that might not matter. Depending on the curriculum you choose, or the coop you find, you might not need much robotics knowledge.

That said, it’s good to know the basics. We will go over the basics of robotics later in this article.

There are baby steps that are incredibly achievable for you. If you feel like you might be over your head, check out our Ultimate Guide to Block Coding . It is a great step towards learning Robotics at home.

Homeschool Robotics – Sources of Help

As always I recommend you first ask around in your local homeschool community. That will probably always be the best source of help you can find. Everywhere I look I see strong homeschool communities where people are eager to help each other.

After that, I’d like to consider Kinvert, my educational company, to be a pretty good source at least when it comes to STEM.

If neither of these are good enough, you can always try YouTube, Google, and Facebook – or DuckDuckGo.

There is also a chance your local library has some cool STEM activities you were unaware of.

Homeschool Robotics – Learn Before Teaching

You don’t need to know everything before getting started. However a bit of research is important.

You’ll want to learn about how to choose the right robot for your family. In addition it’s good to try to stay one chapter ahead of your kids in case they need help. That said, if you find a great curriculum you might not need to give a ton of help.

We’ll go over some of the main things you should know below. The main thing to remember is you don’t have to know everything. Just learn the basics for now.

One article you might be interested in is What is Robotics .

Homeschool Robotics – Your Kids Level

An important consideration will be the level your kids are at for robotics. You might not want to sit your 17 year old down in front of an Ozobot or Legos. You might not want to sit your 5 year old down in front of a robot that needs assembly and can only be programmed in C.

Please keep in mind, when I say beginner, I don’t mean compared to kids their age. I mean how they sit in this topic of robotics.

A beginner has little to no programming and robotics experience. They might have done a semester or maybe a year of Lego robotics (or Ozobot, Dot and Dash, CoderMip, etc).

They understand somewhere between nothing, and how to make a robot make a basic decision such as if the button is pushed, then turn on the light.

They have done some coding of some sort whether that’s Scratch, Lego, or some other snap together language. Maybe they know what a loop is. They’ll start taking more complicated kits and robots and be able to follow along in tutorials.

For example they might program Cozmo with tutorials and make some slight modifications to them. They might do the same with the Parallax ActivityBot 360 .

Ability to start solving unique problems with robots. They’re ready to start learning how to design and build their own custom robots that actually work.

This is the point at which they can start doing more complicated things with Cozmo, apply some trigonometry, or build a custom robot using the Parallax ActivityBot or a similar platform.

Homeschool Robotics at Home

You’ll want to make sure you’re ready with curriculum, your own knowledge, or an online course.

Robots like hard flat surfaces. Though tables work, you’re taking a risk. We’ve taught hundreds of kids and we’ve only had one component break from a skydiving robot. That said, I’m very comfortable buying and replacing parts.

The best place to make this happen is a wood floor or linoleum. Tile can also work but it might give the robot a little trouble when trying to drive accurately. This is due to the uneven surface.

It will be more important home alone with the kiddos to make sure they don’t get too discouraged. I’ve seen kids give up and it was hard to win them back over after they’d tried this at home.

This is one of the pitfalls I’ll talk about later. Some kids can get stuck at a common sticking point, and without help decide they’re “not a coder” or that they “can’t do robotics.” Please don’t let this happen.

Homeschool Robotics in Groups Coops

This could be a great option depending on your situation.

First of all, it is obviously not true that everyone learns better in groups. That said, I think the majority of kids learn best in a well formed group.

Also, if you get your kids learning robotics in a group, you don’t necessarily have to be the teacher.

If you’re in a group there is a great advantage. If managed correctly, the kids will help each other learn. There are multiple reasons this is awesome.

For one, kids learn better generally when they have access to learning and working with peers. Another, and I believe in this strongly, you learn much more by teaching than by just being the student.

By having students help each other, they can learn so much more.

That said, there can be some logistical issues. One of the biggest, is getting all the equipment together.

If you have each kid bringing their own computer, I can say it’s likely you’ll have to troubleshoot a bunch of computers. But, by doing it this way you can save a fair bit of money.

Homeschool Robotics Basics

It might seem like there is a ton of information you need to know. And there sort of is. That said, with knowledge of the very basics you can still make informed decisions.

The main things to look for in an educational robot for your homeschool classroom is the support community, sensors, programming language, and room to grow.

As for the support community, the best I have seen is around the Parallax ActivityBot. Parallax really understands education and they’ve been doing this a long time. I taught myself on Parallax products starting back with the Whata’s a Microcontroller.

Next up is sensors. Without sensors the robot can’t make any meaningful decisions. Again, in my opinion, the Parallax ActivityBot wins here. You can add just about any sensor you can imagine. The only exception is adding a camera requires a fair bit of knowledge. Also keep in mind that when adding sensors, you’ll need to wire them in. That said, Parallax has great instructions.

When it comes to the programming language, this is where Cozmo shines over the ActivityBot. Cozmo can be programmed in Python while the ActivityBot is programmed in C. If you read up on these languages what you’ll quickly find is that Python is much easier than C and approximately as powerful – depending on what you’re doing of course.

For beginners graphical programming languages such as Scratch and Lego may be OK. That said, I encourage you to get your kids in Python as soon as they can type well. I talk about this in Best Age to Teach Kids Python .

With both the Parallax ActivityBot and Anki Cozmo, there is a lot of room to grow. The ActivityBot gives your kids the chance to build their programming and design / building skills for literally decades. With Cozmo you can also do a lot of growing with the programming, maybe more than the ActivityBot, but there is no feasible way to customize the hardware.

Homeschool Robotics – Choosing Your Robot

This might seem overwhelming. We can help break this down for you a bit here.

For beginners, you can look at plain old toys, as well as some of the robots that are very beginner friendly. Good examples will be Ozobot, Dot and Dash, CoderMip, Lego, etc.

At the medium and advanced levels, I recommend maybe Lego still, but mostly the Anki Cozmo SDK and the Parallax ActivityBot 360 .

There won’t be much homework that you the parent will need to do for the beginner robots. For the Cozmo and ActivityBot that might be a different story.

I’ll end up writing an article specifically about this one topic. For now, you might find out Best STEM Gifts for Kids – Educational Toys article useful.

Homeschool Robotics – Lego Limitations

While Lego is great for younger kids, I’ve seen it leave older kids behind when it comes to coding skills. It doesn’t stop there. Lego was pretty important for building robots before 3D Printers were so common. But now, we can design and 3D Print our own custom parts.

Real robots aren’t built with Lego bricks. They’re built with designed and manufactured parts.

Once your kids get past the beginner stage I think it’s critical to get them in to something on the level of the ActivityBot or Cozmo.

Homeschool Robotics Curriculum

You know your kids better than me. So you know if they like structured lessons or to be faced with a challenge to overcome which requires learning on the way.

Before you spend $200 or so you’ll want to know that there is enough of a knowledgebase behind the robot that your kids will be able to learn.

You probably won’t be able to create a robotics for kids curriculum if you can’t find good documentation and examples.

Parallax has pretty good information and tutorials at https://learn.parallax.com .

Anki doesn’t have nearly as much educational backing for Cozmo. They do have a bit with their example programs you can download when installing the SDK.

We do however have a bit of information and we’re constantly expanding it.

Currently the best place to learn about the Anki Cozmo SDK is in our Anki Cozmo Examples in Python – Tutorials and Projects . We also have info on the Anki Vector SDK and have Anki Vector Examples .

Homeschool Robotics YouTube Videos

We will keep adding to this section as we find more resources. If this sub section begins to grow too large, we’ll leave a summary and link to a new article that dives in more depth.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XkL0qQ21Oo

Homeschool Robotics Books

The one that I’ve always had and loved personally, is The Way Things Work (they also have The New Way Thinks Work and The Way Things Work Now ).

Look in to the Usborn books that deal with technical drawings of the insides of things. Very cool books. Again, not directly related to robotics but a good tangent.

As far as robotics books, we don’t have any. That said, we’re currently writing one 🙂

For now, look in to Everything Robotics, Building Your Own Robot, and honestly search around. You should find something your kids will like.

Homeschool Robotics Classes

We will expand this list in the future.

You can find some Lego stuff at Robot Garage. They might call some of their classes advanced but they are all what we at Kinvert to be beginner classes.

The one class that I’ve seen, anywhere, that can go from beginner to advanced is Robotics for Kids and Teens . Yes, it’s a Kinvert class, and I might be biased.

Homeschool Robotics Field Trips

Don’t think you want to go the route of buying a robot and teaching that way? You can still get your kids to learn a little about robotics. There is often the chance to get in a good robotics tour for you our your homeschool group.

Here are some places you might be able to set up some good field trips for your kids. For example, we did a field trip at a local robotics company in the Detroit area.

• Robotics companies
• Maker Faire
• Library program
• Walking with Dinosaurs

We’ve been at Maker Faire Detroit before. You can read our articles on that here:

Maker Faire Detroit 2016

Maker Faire Detroit 2017

Online Homeschool Robotics

Unfortunately I don’t see a ton of options here. I will research this in more depth and add to this section of the article later. If I do find enough info to justify it I will write a dedicated article to this topic and link to it from here.

Build Your Own Robot at Home

The easiest way to do this is with a kit.

Lego here is a fairly obvious choice if your kids are young. If they’re a bit older I’d look again at the Parallax ActivityBot. The great thing about the ActivityBot is our students used that exact kit to make the orange bulldozer you see drawn in this article.

Once you’re pretty advanced and have the right tools you can even design and 3D Print your own robot. This is the level we aim to get our Kinvert students.

Homeschool Robotics Tools

Again this will depend on how in depth you want to get. Maybe you just get them a basic breadboarding kit. Some others with a bigger budget can get their kids some more serious gear such as 3D Printers and an oscilloscope.

If you want to know more about the tools that will be useful for this, please let me know in the comment section below. If I see interest in this I’d be happy to go more in depth on the topic.

Homeschool Robotics Toys

We have an article on this very topic which goes more in depth than I will here. Check out Best STEM Toys for Kids – Educational Gifts .

Long story short, there are a ton of great options. We tend to funnel people towards either the Parallax ActivityBot 360 or the Anki Cozmo SDK .

There are other options as well for younger kids with less experience. Lego is an obvious choice. That said there are other robots we don’t view as fully educational, yet are better than nothing. These include Ozobot, Dot and Dash, Miposaur, and others.

Homeschool Robotics Pitfalls

There are a few pitfalls to avoid when trying to teach robotics to your homeschooling children.

I think the main thing overall is to keep the class challenging while achievable. The last thing you want to do is make your kids think robotics is boring. Worst still would be making them think they can’t be a coder or handle robotics.

You also have the struggle with technology. Some robots are very reliable. That said, things do break, there might be some troubleshooting involved. If you’re teaching this yourself rather than using curriculum, classes, or a homeschooling group, you’ll need to read up on some of this.

Also please make sure your kids can type well. You don’t want to put them in to a written programming language like C or Python before they can type. It is equally as important to not leave them in graphical languages too long.

Homeschool Robotics Related Subjects

If you don’t end up going with robotics, I implore you to please not step away from STEM. Here are some other things that you’ll probably find interesting.

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t make sure you’re aware of our classes. We teach Robotics Classes for Kids , Coding Classes for Kids , 3D Printing for Kids , and we are building an online course as well. We’ll add the link when it’s ready.

We also have several articles that could be helpful.

Best STEM Gifts for Kids – Educational Toys has helped a lot of families get the right educational gifts for their kids.

The Ultimate Guide to Robot Dinosaurs is a pretty cool article.

We have a lot of Anki Cozmo Examples in Python with Projects and Tutorials and more info on the Anki Cozmo SDK .

A similar robot to Cozmo is Vector, also made by the same company. We have an article on Cozmo Vs Vector , the Anki Vector SDK , and Anki Vector Examples, Tutorials, and Projects .

Also consider our Ultimate Guide to Robotics Projects and Ideas .

Applied Math Problems – Real World Math Examples and Uses

Did I Miss Something? Failed to Answer Your Question?

We’re here to help. We make additions to articles ALL THE TIME. Please let me know if I left your question unanswered either in the comments below or on our Contact Page .

Finally, we did link to a couple things on Amazon. It would be great if you could help support us by buying through those links. We get a small percentage and it won’t cost you a penny more.

6 responses to “ Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Robotics ”

Hello. My son is almost 12 and wants to ask for the Vector or Cozmo for Christmas. He’s concerned (seeing your pictures as I scrolled through your website) that Cozmo might be for elementary kids. He is new to coding and robotics so I thought Cozmo might be better after reading some of your comments/info?

Also, have you considered doing a coding class on Outschool.com? A lot of homeschoolers use the website to take various classes. Teachers offer live classes or prerecorded classes. My friend teachers on it and has students in her nature journaling class from Japan, US, England, and Australia.

Thanks for providing the information and suggestion for homeschoolers.

Cozmo is not only for elementary kids. That said there’s a reasonable chance that Vector could be the better option for him.

I just found out about 10 minutes ago that the Vector SDK is now available to all. So I’m going to be checking soon to see how reliable and in depth it is.

Currently Cozmo has a very mature SDK while Vector’s is new and still in testing.

I’ve had several parents mention I should teach on outschool. Currently we’re building classes on our own platform which is currently in development.

Are you interested in testing our classes as a beta tester?

Thanks Jen!

Interested in being a beta tester. My friend and I are homeschool mothers who want to introduce our kids to robotics. Our kids are beginner level and need to learn typing. Thx.

I will send you an email shortly. If for some reason it doesn’t come through send me a quick message to [email protected] .

As for typing I recommend Typing Instructor for Kids:

Amazon Link – https://amzn.to/2X8PSI8

FYI if you buy through that link above we’ll get a small percentage from Amazon and you won’t pay a penny more.

Will talk to you about Beta etc in the email.

I am just reading through this thread looking to provide a co-op course for middles school homeschool students. I would also be interested in being a beta-tester.

Sorry to reply so late. I will email you shortly.

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Housework robot can learn to do almost any chore in 20 minutes

A robotic assistant can learn to do household jobs like opening cupboards, pulling out chairs or taking a towel off a rail after a bit of training using a stick with an iPhone on it

By Alex Wilkins

15 December 2023

A household robot can learn how to do almost any chore in about 20 minutes when taught by a human using an iPhone camera and a litter picker.

Robots tend to perform well only on specific tasks that they have been trained for, like sorting rubbish or picking up laundry , and can quickly run into difficulty when encountering a task in unfamiliar environments, such as in homes.

Now, Mahi Shafiullah at New York University and his colleagues have created a way to teach robots that involves a litter grabber equipped with an iPhone, a system called the Stick.

Construction robot builds massive stone walls on its own

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10 Robots That'll Do Your Chores So You Don't Have To

There are many robot devices that you can use to take care of the worst and most inconvenient household chores.

It may not feel like it, but technology has indeed made our lives significantly easier. Case in point: just look at how many tasks you can now delegate to robots and smart devices---including many of your chores.

The Roomba revolutionized the way we clean our floors, but there are so many other robot devices out there (and more still in development) that we can use to take care of the worst and most inconvenient household chores.

Here are 10 interesting ones to get you started.

1. Autonomous Lawnmower Husqvarna Automower 430X

If you've watched the latest season of Black Mirror, you might not be a fan of robots with blades. But trusty autonomous lawnmowers have been around for some time and have proven incredibly useful when it comes to gardening.

Much like autonomous vacuums, they have a variety of sensors that make it easier for them to navigate certain areas. And whereas autonomous vacuums only save you the work of cleaning a small amount of indoor space, an autonomous lawnmower like the Husqvarna Automower 430X can effortlessly cover multiple acres.

Furthermore, robot lawnmowers have safety mechanisms in place that prevent household accidents. It turns out that they are actually safer than regular lawnmowers in some ways. Robot mowers have sensors that are sensitive to collisions. They also deactivate the blades automatically when the device is handled---something which traditional mowers do not do.

2. Smart Vacuum ILIFE V8s Robot Vacuum

Smart vacuums are one of the original mainstays of autonomous appliances---and over time, not only has the technology become more affordable, but the robots have become more advanced.

There are entry-level vacuums that trade price for a shorter battery life, that can effectively clean one room at a time but are a bit of a nuisance. Then there are also higher-tier vacuums with a bevy of autonomous functions, including stairs detection, area mapping, and automatic docking in charging station.

Autonomous vacuums provide many benefits , which is why they are one of the most popular robot types among modern consumers. One of our personal favorites is the ILIFE V8s Robot Vacuum ( our review ).

3. Smart Mop iRobot Braava 380t Robot Mop

It seems that having our homes vacuumed by robots is not enough---we also want our floors mopped! That's where smart mops come in, which are basically robots that wash your floors. They either come as standalone devices or vacuum hybrids that include a washing function.

Just like smart vacuums, smart mops are able to navigate around your house. Instead of sucking up debris, however, they spray jets of water and wipe over it with a mop attachment. Some mops also have a sweep function, in case you need them to clean up a bit before adding water to the mix.

Many of the companies that make smart vacuums also have smart mops in their catalogs, such as the iRobot Braava 380t Robot Mop which comes from the same makers behind the popular Roomba.

4. Laundry Folding Robot FoldiMate Laundry Folding Machine

Folding laundry is not an energy-intensive chore, but it definitely takes time. So it's no wonder that scientists created a laundry-folding robot. The FoldiMate Laundry Folding Machine was showcased at CES 2018, but its automatic folding abilities were overshadowed by the machine's hefty price tag.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), the robotic folding machine is able to fold according to your preferences. But at nearly $1,000, you must really hate folding laundry (or have inordinate amounts to fold) to actually invest in one of these. If you can, you might fare better by waiting a few years for the price to drop.

5. Robotic Gutter Cleaner iRobot Looj 330 Gutter Cleaning Robot

Cleaning gutters is a nightmare for anyone who isn't comfortable with heights or the gunk that accrues over time. Luckily, robotic gutter cleaners have been invented to take care of the task on your behalf.

They're not as high-tech as some of the other robots on this list---which have app and internet connectivity---but they get the job done. You can operate them with remote controls and set them to different modes. But best of all, you do not have to manually guide them along.

The gadget is also a safer way to clean your gutters if you live in a multi-story house. If you're thinking about getting one, consider starting with the iRobot Looj 330 Gutter Cleaning Robot .

6. Smart Iron Effie Smart Iron

Ironing is a chore you need to stay on top of if you want your clothes to look presentable and clean. But when you have a massive wardrobe, ironing can be a hot and tiring process---which is why there's currently an automatic ironing robot under development.

An automatic iron is similar to a clothing press or hanging clothes dryer, but gentler and does not require you to handle the clothing during the ironing process.

These smart irons, however, seem to be few and far between in terms of consumer availability. The Effie Smart Iron is one possible option, but its release date hasn't been announced.

7. Robotic Window Cleaner HOBOT-188 Window Cleaning Robot

If you've ever had to clean glass sliding doors and large windows, you'll understand the appeal of a robotic window cleaner.

This type of robot has existed for some time, but on a much larger scale only for commercial buildings like skyscrapers. However, much smaller consumer versions of the technology are now available for home use.

It is also a safer way to clean those hard-to-reach exteriors on multi-story buildings. If you're dying to get started with one of these, check out the HOBOT-188 Window Cleaning Robot .

8. Pool Cleaning Robot Dolphin Nautilus Plus

Automated cleaning solutions for home pools has been around for some time, such as the popular Kreepy Krauly in South Africa. Yet while original models were dependent on your pool's pump system, modern pool cleaning robots are smarter than ever.

The latest robotic pool cleaners have sensors that prevent them from getting stuck in corners or floating aimlessly on the water's surface. More recently, companies introduced app-enabled pool cleaning robots that allow you to guide the robot, adjust modes, set timers, and more from a distance.

The Dolphin Nautilus Plus is one such device with great reviews, great performance, at a reasonable price.

9. Grill Cleaning Robot Grillbot Automatic Grill Cleaner

Grill enthusiasts can rejoice now that there are robots that clean your grill top for you. You don't have to break a sweat while attempting to vigorously scrub away at grease---if you're willing to pay extra for a gadget that does it for you.

One downside is that the lack of sensors means you have to keep your grill lid closed during cleaning. Also, nothing quite beats the effectiveness of elbow grease. Considering the price, it might make more sense to just suck it up and do the chore yourself.

But if you want your grill to be cleaned without any effort on your part, this is one more chore you can delegate to robots like the Grillbot Automatic Grill Cleaner , which looks funny but works pretty well.

10. Toilet Cleaning Robot SpinX Toilet Cleaning Robot

You would think that for a chore this hated, robots that clean your toilet would already be widely available. However, like the smart iron, this technology is still in its early days, with only a few products available.

The team at SpinX recently announced their SpinX Toilet Cleaning Robot . The device includes scanning technology, making it suitable for different types of toilet bowls. Altan Robotech has also introduced their own Giddel Portable Toilet Cleaning Robot, which has similar features like scanning and collision detection.

More Robots for Automated Chores on the Horizon?

With internet technology becoming increasingly advanced, people are sure to find a way to automate more chores with smart devices.

Already, companies are envisioning robotic beds that straighten up the covers for you automatically. Meanwhile, companies are refining smart fridge technology so that even your grocery shopping is taken care of without your intervention . This raises the question about whether we are set to become too dependent on technology---but that's a discussion for another day.

For now, if you're looking for more ways to turn your house into a smart home, take a look at these useful smart devices that are worth every penny .

11 Best Home Robots in 2024, According to Tech Experts and Engineers

Useful domestic robots for home cleaning, daily assistance, companionship and more.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute , our Media & Tech lab tests the latest innovations, ranging from consumer electronics such as smart home devices to household appliances like smart air conditioners . While home robots aren't all mainstream technology, we've tested and reviewed several top models for performance capabilities, ease of use and tech specifications. These are the best home robots to help you out in 2022 according to our pros.

Our top picks:

Best Home Robot for Grill Cleaning

Grillbot automatic grill cleaning robot.

Best Home Robot for Lawn Mowing

Husqvarna automower 115h.

Best Home Robot Pet

Sony aibo companion robot.

Best Home Robot for Home Monitoring

Amazon astro.

Best home robot for pool cleaning

Dolphin nautilus.

Best Home Robot for Window Cleaning

Gladwell gecko robot window cleaner.

Best Home Robot for Floor Cleaning

Roborock s7 robot vacuum and mop.

Best STEM Education Home Robot

Wonder workshop dash.

Best Home Robot for Creative Development

Lego boost creative toolbox.

Best Home Robot Assistant

Vector vector 2.0.

If you find that your grill always seems to cling to residue after a barbeque no matter how hard you try to get it off, the Grillbot is a handy little tool that'll help do the scrubbing and scrapping on the grill grate for you! All you have to do is turn it on, close the grill and once it's done cleaning it'll sound an alarm. Though our Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation lab pros haven't yet had the chance to test it in the Lab, our engineers like that this gadget is powered by three electric motors, is equipped with three nylon brushes and can be used on hot or cold surfaces up to 250 degrees.

Sometimes mowing the lawn when it's scorching hot outside is an activity best avoided, and that's where this home robot comes in. Able to cover 0.4 acres and cut grass that's up to 3.6" tall, this robotic mower is perfect for small to mid-sized gardens and yards. But if you have a larger backyard, you can always opt for the feature-rich and smart home-friendly Husqvarna Automower 430X . In our tests, Chief Technologist and Head Engineer, Rachel Rothman , found that this robot lawnmower, which hails from a reliable brand, worked very well and is a worthy investment.

To get started with the automower, you'll need to install guide and boundary wires, but then you're free to sit back and relax. When it comes to battery life, this lawnmower is a lot like a robot vacuum and will head back to its recharging station when it needs more juice. Rothman says, "the app is surprisingly intuitive and easy once all set up, but it does mean that the mower is running for far longer than a traditional lawnmower would have to."

Want a dog but can't handle all that fur or a rigorous walking schedule? Enter aibo, the robotic pup that doesn't shed and certainly doesn't need to go out for walks (but you can still train it to do tricks, go potty and eat virtual food)! Though it's not a replacement for a real pet, aibo has a wide range of sensors built in to help respond and react accordingly to humans, though it does require a cloud plan to store data, grow and evolve. "Its expressions were impressively life-like. Though aibo doesn't look like a real pet by any means, we were impressed with the detail and natural movements," says Rothman.

Though Astro isn't available to the general public quite yet, this robot is worth mentioning for its home monitoring and assistant capabilities, and you can request an invitation to purchase one now. Able to check on specific rooms while you're away and send activity alerts , Astro keeps an eye on everything. It can also play music, podcasts and shows, bring snacks and help you make calls or set reminders with Alexa. Don't want to hunt down your kids to tell them dinner is on the table? Leave it to Astro! It also can be integrated with a Ring Protect Pro plan for enhanced home security when you're out of town.

Concerned this Alexa on wheels will hear everything? Turning off the mics, cameras and motion is simple with a physical button, and you can program out-of-bound zones like a bedroom or bathroom.

If you have a pool in your backyard but find it a hassle to clean the floors and walls (we can't blame you), this robot from Dolphin is suitable for pools with a length up to 50 feet. According to the manufacturer, this robot filters out dirt and debris and leaves your pool clean in two hours. Though the Good Housekeeping Cleaning Lab hasn't tested it out yet, our pros think this is a useful tool for regular pool maintenance and upkeep.

We all know cleaning the windows can be a daunting task, but this home robot helps you reach all the hard-to-reach corners of your windows. Though our engineers haven't tested this tool out yet in the Lab, suction technology is used to stick the robot to your windows and you can then manually control it through an app to get even the hardest to reach corners. The microfiber pads, which scrub the windows gently, are washable for future use.

Ranked as one of the Good Housekeeping Institute's best robot vacuums and winner of the 2021 Good Housekeeping Cleaning Awards , this 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop can handle all sorts of floors, from bare hardwood to carpets . Our Cleaning Lab experts found the setup easy and the app a breeze, and they praised the robot's high-end features such as using sound waves to scrub and the ability to create custom cleaning schedules for individual rooms.

Home robots aren't just for helping out with household chores — they can also be a great source of education for young ones! Voted one of the Good Housekeeping Institute's best STEM toys for kids , Dash is a robotic toy that not only responds to voice commands but comes with five free apps that introduce coding and critical thinking skills through fun projects and puzzles. Able to also sing, draw and move around, there's no doubt that Dash will keep kids engaged. Rothman loves that it introduces robotics and coding to kids in an engaging, kid-friendly way and can level up with them as they acclimate to the basic functions.

This 840-piece mega set is made for LEGO lovers and children between the ages of 7 to 12 who want a taste of coding and robotics . All you have to do is download the free LEGO Boost app and you can bring to life five different robots, ranging from a rover to a guitar or cat! In addition to building robots, kids can participate in more than 60 activities found in the app and complete challenges that improve coding skills. Rothman loves that it makes coding approachable with a simple drag-and-drop interface, teaching kids all about loops and variables while simultaneously strengthening problem-solving, creativity and imaginative play skills.

Once your child grows out of this toolbox, you can upgrade to the more complex LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor for more unique, stimulating designs to build.

Vector 2.0 is the robot sidekick whose company you won't mind. Able to take photos, answer questions, set reminders and avoid obstacles as it navigates your home , this little robot is both delightful and entertaining and can assist you with day-to-day tasks. Vector can even react to touch and give you a fist bump if you ask and it recognizes faces and may even greet you by name, though it does require a membership subscription.

ElliQ ElliQ

ElliQ is a home robot companion best suited for elderly folks or loved ones who are looking for a little extra support than you'd get with Alexa or Google Assistant. This voice-activated robot provides companionship, health and wellness support, entertainment and more. For instance, ElliQ is able to initiate conversations and remember context to inform future follow-up conversations, like asking how your day was. Able to build relationships, this home robot offers more than basic functions and features, though it does require a subscription.

How we choose the best home robots

At the Good Housekeeping Institute, our Cleaning, Kitchen Appliances & Culinary Innovation, Parenting Lab and Media & Tech Lab experts have tested thousands of products and innovations across industries. To choose the best home robots, analysts and engineering pros evaluated each home robot for ease of use and performance capabilities, also considering brand experience, industry expertise and tech specifications. As home robot technology advances and evolves, our pros will continue to attend demos and test the latest models and editions as they hit the market.

Why trust Good Housekeeping?

Media & Tech Reviews Analyst Olivia Lipski oversees product testing and covers everything from connected devices to appliances, health, home and fitness. With a B.A. from George Washington University and a master’s in communications from Sciences Po Paris, Olivia has several years of experience writing about tech and trends. She continues to stay on top of the industry’s latest innovations and helps readers make better buying decisions by testing and reviewing the best gadgets to hit the market.

Rachel Rothman , Chief Technologist and head engineer, has a B.S.E. in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics with a mathematics minor from the University of Pennsylvania and has been at GH for 14 years. She leads efforts for the constant evolution of GH’s technical and testing protocols, responding both to market drivers and growth opportunities. Rachel is the lead expert and key brand ambassador for GH across a number of categories — including electronics, smart home, automotive, toys, parenting, fitness, tech, startups and more — and a sought-after speaker at large-scale events like CES.

Olivia (she/her) is a media and tech product reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute , covering tech, home, auto, health and more. She has more than five years of experience writing about tech trends and innovation and, prior to joining GH in 2021, was a writer for Android Central, Lifewire and other media outlets. Olivia is a graduate of George Washington University, with a bachelor's degree in journalism, political science and French, and she holds a master’s degree in communications from Sciences Po Paris.

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} Smart Home

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Manipulation technology makes home-helper robot possible

by Kaitlyn Landram, Carnegie Mellon University Mechanical Engineering

Parents spend roughly 300 hours each year cleaning up after their kids. That's nearly two weeks that could be otherwise spent doing anything else. Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with Google DeepMind and University of Washington, are hopeful that parents will regain tidying time and then some with LocoMan, a four-legged version of the Jetsons' beloved maid "Rosie the Robot," that could lend a hand in the not-so-distant future.

Quadrupedal robots, designed to move on four legs much like a dog, are already leading search and rescue missions , surveying construction sites , and moving parts around factories. Their ability to navigate complex environments with a low center of gravity and light weight make quadrupedal robots a top contender for household use. Until now, the missing piece was the dexterity and versatility skills necessary for them to be efficient in daily life.

By installing two custom-designed, lightweight manipulators (think robot arms ) onto the front legs of a quadrupedal robot, Ding Zhao has created a robot versatile enough to open doors, pour drinks, plug a phone in to charge, and perhaps best of all—clean up after your on-the-go toddlers.

"While many work on humanoid robots that look like humans, with potential to directly learn from humans or even replace humans in some tasks, we focus on robots that are complementary to humans to team up with them," said Zhao, associate professor of mechanical engineering .

Unlike humanoid robots that come at a high cost and hefty weight, Zhao's manipulators can be added to existing lower-cost quadrupedal robots and are compact, lightweight, and easy to fabricate making them an accessible technology.

"We used four commercially available servos and 3D printed a few other parts to bring them to life," explained Changyi Lin, a Ph.D. candidate in CMU Safe AI Lab and a co-author of a paper on this topic.

Zhao's team introduced the robot to a class of preschool students at The Cyert Center for Early Education of Carnegie Mellon University. After explaining to children how robots work and what we use them for, the children had the opportunity to interact with Zhao's robot. The students were impressed with the robot's capabilities and didn't want it to leave their classroom.

The group continues to develop LocoMan to perform tasks autonomously by integrating advanced perception and intelligence planning capabilities into its existing whole-body controller.

"We anticipate that robots like LocoMan will be ready to help out at home, or in daycares, within the next three years," said Zhao. "It is a pleasant job just to imagine that I may no longer need to handle my kids' messy fun."

This work will be presented at the loco-manipulation workshop and the manipulation skills workshop of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation .

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