SOPHIA — The Audrey Hepburn inspired AI powered social Robot !!
Can things get more interesting and awesome than this? An actual robot receiving citizenship of a country!?! While the European Union debates assigning a “personhood” status to Robots, Saudi Arabia stole the thunder by granting Sophia- The AI social robot a full citizenship.
Of course, this could be a strategic ploy to attract investors to the country to invest in futuristic technologies like AI and Robotics by coming across as technologically progressive but then that’s not the point I’m wowed by. Its Sophia.
Brainchild of Dr. David Hanson, Artificial Intelligence powered SOPHIA is an almost human looking robot developed by the Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics. Complete with a flubber skin graft et al.
SOPHIA was designed by the engineers to look like Audrey Hepburn — embodying her classic beauty.
Even though certain reflexes and facial expressions come across as creepy for now, it’s only a matter of weeks or months and that would be fixed too.
CNBC’s Andrew Sorkin interviewed SOPHIA the robot in front of hundreds of attendees earlier this week at the Future Investments Initiative. SOPHIA displayed high level of learning and adaptability while addressing the conference while on stage.
Not only did SOPHIA smartly answer the questions but also displayed the ability to understand the human emotion of “uneasiness” and “doubt”. She even gave a witty remark addressing the largely Arab audience by calling them” smart people, who also happen to be rich and powerful”
When Andrew Sorkin questioned her about the Movie Blade Runner and the possibility of robots potentially being destructive, she sassily replied to Sorkin by taking a dig at Elon Musk -” You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies “
Elon Musk took the bait and shot back with a tweet but that’s another story!
Suddenly films like Will Smith’s AI — (at least the first half) begin to feel real and not a distant dream. Robots running errands and walking up to the pharmacy to get your prescription medicines or robots walking the dog at 4 AM. A robot teaching an autistic child with never ending patience or taking care of bedridden patients. The possibilities are endless.
What’s also wonderous is this. In 2015, SOPHIA was described by her Creator Dr Hanson as somebody who had the mind of an infant.
Fast forward to 2017, SOPHIA is addressing an international conference and taking interviews from CNBC anchor and even was a guest in April 2017 on the Jimmy Fallon show. That’s a tremendous amount of innovation in a very short time span.
SOPHIA’s interview has also sparked a fresh conversation about what lies ahead in AI and Robotics. The presence of a sentiment led robot amongst us today who has achieved a high level of human like consciousness is astounding.
SOPHIA’s existence also takes us a step ahead towards reaching the “Uncanny valley — the point at which a robot looks almost realistic enough to pass for a human, but retain enough artificiality to make people uncomfortable” — a term coined by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese professor of Robotics.
As a passionate AI enthusiast, I for one am avidly watching out for more on how SOPHIA performs and for more humanoid robots to come.
You can watch her full interview with Andrew Sorkin here:
You can also read more of my thoughts on AI in my previous article : When and why AI will snatch your jobs in the future? Or if AI interests you , check out this blog 5 Blogs and bloggers to follow if AI interests you ( & one awwwwwsome professor!)
P.S. — I am an ardent AI enthusiast and seek its business relevance each day because i know its the way to a productive tomorrow. In fact, I’ve just built an AI powered CRM tool called Alore. If you’d like to explore the tool click here
If you want to write to me and discuss on AI personally then I’d be happy to hear from you at vikas@plash.in
