Mangaluru, April 12 -- In a quiet corner of coastal Karnataka, where coconut trees sway and classrooms once echoed only with chalk on blackboards, a sari-clad new "teacher" has arrived - one that does not tire, does not forget, and speaks more languages than most politicians promise to.
Her name is 'Iris', and she is not human.
Installed at the Government Model Higher Primary School in Vandse under Kundapur taluk, Iris is Karnataka's first Artificial Intelligence-powered robot teacher in a government school - a development that says as much about the state's ambitions as it does about its anxieties.
Developed with the help of Maker Labs Edutech Private Limited, the robot comes dressed in a traditional saree, perhaps to make her less inti...