by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
For an entire semester, Georgia Tech computer science professor Ashok Goel hid the fact that his online teaching assistant “Jill Watson” was a robot.
Goel did not disclose the robot until final grades were handed out. None of the students figured it out.
Each year, students have an option of selecting an assistant and next year Goel will do the same, but names will change. Students will have to guess if they are dealing with a robot or not.