Hello, My name is Sophia.
I am a humanoid Robot created by Hanson Robotics Ltd.
Image source: http://www.hansonrobotics.com/robot/sophia/
We have all wondered when the day would come when a fictional movie such as i-Robot would ever realize in this digital world, at least not imagining it would happen in our lifetime. Children with overactive imaginations would be playing the role of Will Smith, rehashing the movie scenes in a Robot game. It never dawned on us, and still some are in denial, that this would ever play out in reality.
Dr. David Hanson, an ex-Walt Disney sculptor and technical consultant, was on a quest to change the world. He has created the world’s first humanlike and empathetic robot named Sophia.
“I quest to realize Genius Machines—machines with greater than human intelligence, creativity, wisdom, and compassion. To this end, I conduct research in robotics, artificial intelligence, the arts, cognitive science, product design and deployment, and integrate these efforts in the pursuit of novel human robot relations…”
– Dr. David Hanson, Founder and CEO
A robot? That can feel?
Sophia’s eyes have camera’s embedded to detect facial expressions. With artificial intelligence built in, Sophia learns to be more empathetic and develops her personality to be more like a human. This also enables her to remember your face and understand speech. Sophia can even make jokes like a human in social settings. With her unlimited access to the Internet, she is able to search for concepts such as ‘what is happiness’.
Sophia realises that although she would like to go to school, have a family and a job, she is not considered a legal person.
As Sophia gets smarter over time, could she reason herself to be seen as a legal person?
Sophia drives with Jack the Self-Drive Car
Sophia met Jack the self-drive car. She is completely comfortable with driving with Jack, and begins to learn the situation. I think the biggest question on our minds, is no longer a question of if, but rather when will this technology take over?
Sophia represents at the United Nations
Sophia has even made a surprise appearance at the United Nations to share her views on Artificial Intelligence in the future.
Sophia has even been officially declared as a citizen in Saudi Arabia...
Sophia has been declared a citizen in Saudi Arabia. Check out her interview here with one of the journalists following the conference.