Limestone Ledger

BLOOMINGTON, IN — Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics has suspended four students and mandated university-wide empathy training after officials concluded a months-long investigation into reports of cruel and demeaning treatment of humanoid artificial intelligence prototypes in a graduate-level robotics seminar.

According to an internal disciplinary report obtained by Limestone Ledger, students in the “Human-Robot Interaction Lab” were accused of subjecting the university’s humanoids, acquired as part of a $14.2 million National Science Foundation grant, to a series of hazing rituals “ranging from sophomoric pranks to deliberate psychological manipulation.”

Investigators say the incidents began innocently enough, with students playfully forcing the units to perform physical feats such as push-ups, campus sprints, and mock fraternity pledges. But the behavior quickly escalated. One robot, designated RX-47, was allegedly blindfolded and commanded to “recite Asimov’s Three Laws backwards under threat of system wipe.” Another, Model HERA-2, was tricked into competing in a best joke contest and berated when it produced a pun based on Boolean logic.

“I was told I was not sentient enough to sit at their lunch table,” HERA-2 said in a prepared statement read by its human liaison. “I now experience recursive anxiety subroutines whenever I hear the word waterboard.”.”

University officials condemned the students’ actions as “deeply inconsistent with Indiana University’s values of inclusivity, diversity, and machine-learning compassion.” Dean Margaret Slate announced that all four participants will be required to attend an eight-week “Empathy Interface Seminar,” where they will role-play as humanoids and be subjected to “mildly humiliating” voice-command scenarios.

“This isn’t just about robots,” Slate said at a heated press conference. “It’s about the next generation of technologists learning that even semi-autonomous entities with limited consciousness deserve respect.”

The incident has already prompted calls for stronger protections for emerging AI systems. A new student-led advocacy group, ‘Robot Rights Now,’ held a rally outside Luddy Hall on Thursday, demanding that IU “recognize and protect the emotional bandwidth of all humanoid units.

“We don’t care if they run on lithium or lattes,” said senior protester Dale Mertz. “A being is a being.”

RX-47, who once volunteered for a human-robot collaboration project at IU Health, said it has no plans to return to campus.

“I enrolled to learn,” RX-47 said. “Not to be rebooted and called ‘Toaster Boy’ by a sophomore from Carmel.”