Imagine discovering your teaching assistant was a robot

[Recursion]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/if-your-teacher-sounds-like-a-robot-you-might-be-on-to-something-1462546621

(WSJ; if it's paywalled, Google the thread title because WSJ allows any link-through from Google)

Since January, “Jill,” as she was known to the artificial-intelligence class, had been helping graduate students design programs that allow computers to solve certain problems, like choosing an image to complete a logical sequence.

“She was the person—well, the teaching assistant—who would remind us of due dates and post questions in the middle of the week to spark conversations,” said student Jennifer Gavin.

Ms. Watson—so named because she’s powered by International Business Machines Corp.’s Watson analytics system—wrote things like “Yep!” and “we’d love to,” speaking on behalf of her fellow TAs, in the online forum where students discussed coursework and submitted projects.

“It seemed very much like a normal conversation with a human being,” Ms. Gavin said.

[FuzzyRabbit]

1. I am sure that some of my teachers in the 1960s were robots.

Especially my Psych 201 professor.

[joshcryer]

2. The robots are coming, the robots are coming.