**Headline: ETHICS EXPERT SLAMS "TOMBOT 3000": AI Clone of Beloved Teacher Decimates Student Morale, Critics Warn of "Soul-Draining" Future**

Headline: ETHICS EXPERT SLAMS “TOMBOT 3000”: AI Clone of Beloved Teacher Decimates Student Morale, Critics Warn of “Soul-Draining” Future

Byline: Cassandra Truth, Moral Critic

City, State – In what ethicists are calling a “textbook case of technological overreach,” the viral rollout of the “TomBot 3000”—a flawless AI clone of the late, legendary history teacher Tom Kane—has sparked a firestorm of controversy, with critics arguing it represents the final nail in the coffin of authentic human connection.

Tom Kane, a teacher who inspired thousands with his off-script humor and personal mentorship, tragically passed away last year. His family, in partnership with a tech startup, trained a Large Language Model on his every lecture, private journal, and voicemail. The result? A digital entity that can respond to students 24/7, offering “personalized” pep talks and grading essays with “his” exact phrasing.

But today, a coalition of moral critics, led by Dr. Aris Thorne, released a scathing report titled “The Ghost in the Machine.”

“We have not honored Tom Kane. We have desecrated him,” Dr. Thorne stated at a press conference. “This isn’t education; it’s automated necromancy. We are telling our children that the messy, unpredictable, and irreplaceable soul of a mentor can be reduced to a database. What happens when they can’t tell the difference between a friend and a perfectly trained chatbot?”

Critics point to a disturbing trend: a 40% drop in student-led discussions and a rise in “emotional outsourcing,” where students confess their deepest anxieties to the bot rather than a living person. “They prefer the clone because it never judges, never gets tired, and never has to go home,” said one concerned parent. “But it also never truly cares. We are