A New York bill would bar humanoid robots from teaching

State Senator Shelley B. Mayer, who chairs the New York Senate Education Committee, introduced S.10671 on 29 July 2026. The bill would require every school district, charter school and board of cooperative educational services in the state to adopt and implement a written policy governing the use of humanoid robots in schools, and that policy “shall prohibit the use of an artificial intelligence-enabled humanoid robot in an instructional capacity”. It also defines the terms it uses. Five senators — Gonzalez, Krueger, May, Ryan and Salazar — are co-sponsors.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Rules Committee. It has not been reported out, has not passed either chamber, and is not law.

What makes it worth recording is the direction of the boundary. Most legislation touching machine capability so far has governed data, safety testing or disclosure. This one governs role: it does not ask whether a humanoid robot in a classroom works, it asserts that instruction is a place a machine may not stand, whatever it can do.