A much vaunted AI chatbot — custom designed to help students thrive academically and parents navigate the complexities of Los Angeles public schools — has been turned off after the company that created it furloughed “the vast majority” of its staff. The school district said it dropped its dealings with AllHere, the company that created “Ed,” the sun-shaped chatbot, after “we were notified of their financial collapse.” AllHere did not respond to an inquiry this week from The Times and the level of its operation is unclear.
In a separate development, a major data breach has affected a data cloud company called Snowflake, which has worked with L.A. Unified.
The district said Tuesday that there is no connection to the AllHere situation, and that it is working with investigative agencies to assess the damage and which district records were obtained through a third-party contractor. Meanwhile, the district unplugged the chatbot — for which AllHere had been paid $3 million — on June 14, less than three months after unveiling the animated figure as an easy-to-use, conversational companion for students and a soon-to-be-indispensable guide for parents. “Ed” is both a chatbot, personified as a happy, round sun, and an online platform that attempts to put together in one portal student records, assignments, grades, academic recommendations and mental health referrals.
The online platform was introduced in March by Supt. Alberto Carvalho as a historic, one-of-a-kin.
