--- title: "Prep School Appoints AI Chatbots to Executive Staff Roles" description: "A British boarding school has recruited two artificial intelligence chatbots to serve as the school's \"principal headteacher\" and head of AI." date: "2023-10-22" modified: "2023-10-22" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/prep-school-ai-jobs" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "avatar" - "education" - "the digest" --- # Prep School Appoints AI Chatbots to Executive Staff Roles ![A British boarding school has recruited two artificial intelligence chatbots to serve as the school's "principal headteacher" and head of AI.]() *partial view into classroom \~ shot with canon eos rp \Image: Catherine McQueen/Getty Images\* ## First Principal A tony British boarding school has recruited two AI chatbots to work as the school's "principal headteacher" and "head of AI" to act as "servants" to its pupils. As [*The Telegraph* reports](), Cottesmore prep school headmaster and [avowed AI booster Tom Rogerson]() said that the school's chatbots, which are named "Abigail Bailey" and "Jamie Rainer" — both, interestingly, portrayed as people of color — were created to help him with the education management tasks on which they were trained. The Abigail Bailey chatbot, stylized as a Black woman, is the school's new principal headteacher — basically a fancy term for vice principal — and the Jamie Rainer bot, also portrayed as someone of mixed race, was "hired" on as head of AI after Rogerson told reporters earlier this year that he wanted to recruit someone to run the school's AI initiatives. "We need to prepare them for a life of using and living with AI and robots which have AI installed in them," Rogerson [previously told *The Telegraph*]() over the summer. He added that he wants kids to learn to make bots their "benevolent servants" — which, to be fair, does sound like exactly the kind of thing an AI-bullish British prep school headmaster would say. ## Empathic Tendencies In the most recent interview, the headmaster of the Sussex, England-based school said that he decided to appoint an AI to run the school's AI systems because it was a "tall order to fulfill all of \[the\] remits" he was looking for in the role, which included not only being qualified to run and teach the tech, but also the ability to teach gym and other classes, and to be empathetic. Rogerson didn't explain how he plans to have AI do all of the aforementioned better than a human — we're particularly puzzled by the gym part — but he did let the British newspaper in on his mindset. "Being a school leader, a headmaster, is a very lonely job," he told *The Telegraph*. "Of course, we have head teacher’s groups... but just having somebody or something on tap that can help you in this lonely place is very reassuring." Though he's far from the first person to [turn to AI out of loneliness](), it's telling not only that Rogerson has chosen to appoint the tech to such high-ranking roles, but also that he made them people of color. We've reached out to Cottsmore for clarity on the racializing of these avatars, especially in the context of them being considered "benevolent servants" by its headmaster. All told, it's a bit baffling to see AI chatbots taking on important positions while the tech is so far from perfect — but then again, in the race to replace humans with algorithms, [technological prematurity]() usually seems beside the point. **More on strange AI:** [*Iranian Authorities Say AI Could Help Issue Fatwas Faster Than Ever Before*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()