Chinese schoolgirl shamed for using robot to write homework. Now everybody wants one

Attached to a computer by a USB cable, its robotic arm writes text entered using the accompanying software.

A case of a schoolgirl in China buying a so-called copying robot to write her homework has caused many social media users to leap to her defence and fuelled growing interest in the machines.

It was reported last week by Qianjiang Evening News, in the eastern city of Hangzhou, that a woman surnamed Zhang in the northeast city of Harbin had discovered that her daughter, aged about 15, had bought the robot to help her complete homework during the Lunar New Year holiday. She used it for exercises such as copying passages from a textbook and writing essays.