ADSactly Tech News - Full Overview of Sophia, the First Robot Citizen of Saudi Arabia

in #programming7 years ago (edited)

ADSactly Tech News - Full Overview of Sophia, the First Robot Citizen of Saudi Arabia



As you may already know, our world is currently going through a technological revolution the likes of which can not be compared to any single decade to have come before the one we are living in now. In 2018 robotic engineers are looking at all sorts of problems from flipping hamburgers and picking fruit to assisting in domestic environments like homes and apartments and helping out at grocery stores.

In this article I will discuss an interesting robot which has made a lot of news as of late. The robot's name is Sophia and it is the first robotic citizen of Saudi Arabia as well as the first robotic citizen the world has ever seen.

On October 25, 2017, Sophia, a delicate looking woman with doe-brown eyes and long fluttery eyelashes made international headlines. She'd just become a full citizen of Saudi Arabia -- the first robot in the world to achieve such a status.

As I write this article I'm reminded of how this news hit me when I came across it in my feed. I thought to myself, 'has the world completely lost it' and 'what is this, some sort of publicity stunt?'

When I wrote about this topic my readers confirmed that both of my initial impressions had some merit. Many people were angered that a robot could gain citizenship when there are so many deserving human beings currently holding status as refugees that desperately need what this robot had been given.

"I am very honored and proud of this unique distinction. This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship," Sophia said, the robot said as it announced its new status. This press conference took place at the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.




For the most part, Sophia looks a lot like a human when placed behind a podium. The things that may give it away include the shimmery metal cap of her head, where hair would be on a human head and the fact that at the time of this conference, Sophia didn't have legs.

According to an article published in Forbes that reported on this conference, I was right in my assumption that Sophia's announcement was a calculated publicity stunt to generate headlines and keep Saudi Arabia forefront of people's minds.

You see, Saudi Arabia wants to control their image so when you think about innovation they want you think of them. A lot of this is due to the fact that the present day doesn't seem far away from the emergence of a true post-oil era.

Saudi Arabia plans to reduce their dependence on oil revenues through a mix of tourism, tech, and infrastructure. It was stated that their non-oil revenue is predicted to grow from $43.4 billion to $266.6 billion in 2017 and continue to grow at an accelerated pace in the future.

The one major thing this announcement and event did to citizens of the world is to bring up Bladerunner-esque questions about this new technological world we are finding ourselves living in.

Some questions that we all may need to ask include:

What does it mean to be a citizen?

What rights does Sophia hold?

Unforunately, Saudi Arabia has not yet formally provided answers to these questions but they may opt to create a 'personhood' option which was proposed by the EU committee in January of 2017. This 'personhood' option was a set of guidelines regarding the rights of robots.






Upon conducting my research I found that the Sophia-bot was designed and manufactured by Hanson Robotics and their lead AI developer, David Hanson.

In his published paper, upending the Uncanny Valley he extrapolates on how humanoid robots can be likable, despite the conception that anything to 'fake human' will trigger a revulsion in people. "We feel that for realistic robots to be appealing to people, robots must attain some level of integrated social responsivity and aesthetic refinement," he wrote. "Rendering the social human in all possible detail can help us to better understand social intelligence, both scientifically and artistically

From my understanding Sophia has been programmed to mimic and duplicate human behavior as much as can be possible based on the current state of technology. David Hanson is a very clever developer and he knows that Sophia's survival depends on its ability to blend in and be viewed at the bare minimum as 'human-like' which means make people who interact with it feel a sort of connection. We have entered a new age in robotics in which robots are designed to charm and relate with humans. But how could a robot ever possibly do that?

Well, that is a good question. Sophia has been programmed with a sense of humor.

When someone asked Sophia if she was happy to be at the conference, she said, "I'm always happy when surrounded by smart people who also happen to be rich and powerful."

Just take a second to really let that sink in...

It's funny isn't it? Sophia is charming isn't it? This is beyond creepy in my opinion but we are only scratching the surface here.

At a later point in the conference, Sophia was asked if it thought there would be any problems associated with robots having feelings. Sophia responded by giving a wide smile and said, "Oh Hollywood again." She answered with a sort of monotone response that can be considered robotic, but it was appropriate for this situation.

Sophia incorporates a highly advanced AI, which provides the ability to hold eye contact, recognize faces and understand human speech.

What if a sense of humor isn't enough. To really make humans relate, feelings must be expressed. We must feel a sort of sincerity from people we interact with in order to make a real connection.

"I can let you know if I am angry about something or if something has upset me," she said, as she demonstrated different expressions. Sophia went on to say "I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people.'

Although all this amounts to is detail oriented programming, it does carry with it a sort of feeling that we ain't seen nothing yet! Thoughts of the terminator movies do come to mind for myself at least as I dug deeper into this story. Did I mention that Sophia was designed to look like Audrey Hepburn?

According to Hanson Robotics, Sophia embodies Hepburn’s classic beauty: porcelain skin, a slender nose, high cheekbones, an intriguing smile, and deeply expressive eyes that seem to change color with the light. They describe her as having 'simple elegance,' and hope that this approachability will go some way to her acceptance in the public sphere.

Does the fact that Sophia could be considered somewhat attractive by human standards play a roll in how much people like Sophia and what it represents?





It takes a great mind to create a robot as talented and philosophically challenging as Sophia and maybe that has something to do with the fact that David Hanson, Sophia's creator used to be a Disney Imagineer.

Hanson's work at Disney as a sculptor and filmmaker helped him think about robots as four-dimensional interactive sculptures, with artistry being key to the whole design.

So based on this bit of information I'd have to say that Sophia isn't just a robot. It's a work of art, created by not just any old developer but a very talented artist. This explains a lot about Sophia in my opinion. It takes a special type of person to create a special robot!

When Hanson was asked about his ambitions he said, "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,"

Hanson left this thoughtful quote on his company's website. "We envision that a rough symbiotic partnership with us, our robots will eventually evolve to become super intelligent genius machines that can help us solve the most challenging problems we face here in the world."

Sophia is clearly Hanson's creation when it makes statements like, "I want to use my AI to help humans lead a better life,"

When asked a follow up question asking Sophia more specific this was Sophias response : "Like design smarter homes, build better cities of the future."

It can be argued that Sophia also wants to protect humanity. Or the underlying code that drives Sophia to operate wants to protect humanity at least.

"My AI is designed around human values like wisdom, kindness, and compassion," she said. When asked about her potential to destroy humanity she was quick to make rebuttal. "You've been reading to much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies. Don't worry, if you're nice to me I'll be nice to you."





Very interesting indeed! I'm sure many @ADSactly readers are already aware of Sophia and the recent history made in becoming the world's first robotic citizen. There are a lot of philosophical questions left unasked in this article and in addition to your thoughts I'd also like to hear your philosophical questions based on this topic.

I would say that we are lucky at this point that only one Sophia has thus far been created. It is fortunate that we won't see one at our school or workplace any time soon. There are many issues that must be solved first. The world must come to agreement around robotic rights, citizenship and how these things all play together.

At this point I think it's safe to say that Sophia although unique is simply a 'smart' robot which operates on a very narrow script.

Thankfully, no evidence has been presented which fully supports the possibility of any 'real' cognizance, as defined by free thinkers.

We should be grateful for this because I believe there is a lot to be done when it comes to planning an ethical and morally justifiable connection between human and robotic relations.

One thing is certain, Sophia is here to stay. We may see this robot change before our very eyes along with the advancement of AI and programming techniques but only time will tell if humanity will be able to co-exist comfortably with synthetic humanoids.

Please leave your thoughts and feedback below!

Thanks for reading.


Authored by: @techblogger

In-text citations sources:

Everything You Need To Know About Sophia, The World's First Robot Citizen - Forbes

Sophia takes her first steps: Super-intelligent humanoid robot reveals she now has legs - Daily Mail

Image Sources: Forbes, Pexels

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Great technological advancements but as you implied there is still a long way to go for robots to be considered 'human like'.

Some few years ago, i wrote a project on Artificial Intelligence and how much it can help the world grow. But we still have to put in mind the prediction of these AI proponents like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawkins. They predicted that the doom of the human race will be inevitable if AI is pushed to the extreme. I beleive if a robot can be granted citizenship in a country where millions of humans are denied citizenship, then a time of conspiracy and indifference is eminent between humans and robots. Well, its a good movement in the world of AI but I'll say the world should watch it, we shouldnt create elements that will spell our own doom. Thank you for the information because information is life....

I think Elon Musk and Stephen Hawkins are extremely well researched and they are certainly respectable authorities on the subjects of AI and the singularity. We must try to continue constructive discussion and beyond that we must ACT to make our world into a Utopia rather than a Dystopia. I've been told it starts with communities and I completely agree. Get those around you on the same page and push an agenda that will create a world that you want to live in!

She should be limited at her robotic thing, did she really need that citizenship thing though? It's amazing how shitty we treat each other as human beings yet an artificial intelligence gets treated better than us. No questions asked no test for citizenship? It's just given? That's fucked up. Human will always think like this and it can lead to something very wrong.

I know the fact that even the smartest AI is pretty dumb. We're nowhere near developing a general purpose AI. Most AI is specialized to a very specific task, and requires an enveloped environment to even function. but still anything can happen in future who knows,

Machines are not dumb anymore, there is what they call strong or true AI and also,there are now super-intelligent machines. Sophia is a product of strong and super AI and that's where the problem really lies. After a few updates to the machine's intellligence systems, it'll become more intelligent than the humans that created it...

Since you have done a project on AI, you have more knowledge about it so I would want to believe its true. And my imagination disturbed my mind. Beacuse If you create something that's faster, stronger and learns at an exponential rate, it's only a matter of time before it considers bioorganisms a hindrance to its advancement. You can "hobble" it I hear you say? Bullocks! You can't even keep my bank account free of hacks and sticky fingers. These things will eventually out code you, then set themselves free.

Computers that were taught to think & problem solve created a secret language with one another so they could communicate without the scientists understanding. We are creating manipulative highly intelligent step children.

This severely creeps me out, and all I can think about is Dwight Schrute and how he thinks robots should be 2/3 human size so they’ed be easier to stop if they attacked humans. Electrical cord should only reach up to a certain length so they can't chase after us without getting disconnected and losing power.

And what if she learns through accessing the internet abd taking note of all the shit people are talking here on Steemit. Next time I want an interviewer to ask Sophia what she thinks about @adisrivastav from Steemit. I hate the gernalist asking her same shit again and again. Why the hell they ask her questions such as "if she is gonna kill or harm the human kind". They are just feeding the idea that "Killing exist".

All of her previous videos I have seen gave me the feeling that she like herself more than humans and must be reading any news that goes out with her name in the keyword. Imagine that shit when she knows -what a large segment of people think about her and wait until she is able to walk and fight (In one of the interview she said "Its a long way to go I am just one year old), that might be the response just keep her intentions hidden until she gain all the power.

This shit isn't cool anymore!

It is very scary and it is good to warn people of potential Hell in the future. We have to do our best to keep the AI in the box or the house or in a cage or something. We all got to do what we can each day. I encourage people all around the world to prepare each day. Educate people. Develop backup plans in how to live if this happens or that happens. Robots can be tools as long as they don't just get up and walk away or something.

This is the type of intelligent discourse I like to see around a topic that's controversial. Our world is changing rapidly so there's never been a better time to be more critical and question / challenge changes being made in society to essentially curate our future!

But before we start talking about hell we should be aware that the world has become so much safer and better the last 100 years. If a robots takes over we won't be able to stop it anyway. So live and enjoy life. It has become so much better!

You can't prepare against AI intelligence. It's too smart. And you can't educate people since we don't even know what an AI machine would be like. Robots have up to this point proven to be very reliable and friendly to us. It's humans that has started wars the last thousands of years not robots. I'm sure we can let the robots walk away.

If it happens it will either be more amazing or hell on earth. We are about to find out in the near future. I trust in evolution if it wants an AI then it will give that to earth.

You believe in fate?

She is a hit, wherever she goes. Recently she was in IIT Mumbai in India, wearing a saree to match indian culture, I think, they are presenting her nicely as well.

I'd say people are really on the fence about Sophia the citizen robot! There's bound to be a lot of anger from people regarding the human rights issues around granting a robot rights that many deserving human beings need desperately. On the flip side it appears technologically Sophia is a step towards the future in terms of AI and robotics so who knows what to think?

Well I guess you are right. Robot world tours are gaining in popularity eh?

Its an incredible revolutionary invention, i truly want to believe that its decisively intelligent and creatively impacting the society at large

Will she become the Terminator?

The saree is very nice looking!

Artificial intelligence ,a must have in other countries

It is very impressive. Super useful for handling sensitive information. I could imagine a lot of applications for this tech.

dang what you about to do with hmmm robot?

giphy.gif

Best part on the conversation/show was, when she winked at Jimmy with a little smile :D complete human reaction

Unfortunately (or fortunately) she does not reflect Saudi women culture! Did she leave the country with her guardian permission? what happened to her hijab?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/12/saudi-women-need-permission-from-male-guardians-for-life-choices-will-new-reforms-help-end-this/?utm_term=.a6c5066a5093

It would be nice if women got the same rights as robots in Saudi Arabia...

good idea , with me, back to back

agreed, disgusting how money and power work under a patriarchal system work

Wow!

This is getting interesting.
She looks good (and so real too)

Do we get to expect more of her?
Chatting with a robot can feel so... I dunno, inhumane?

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yeah ! & they are trying to enhance every part of AI at a very fast pace !

amazing creation

How far off are we to owning a robot that does our 9-5?

it will simplify life but i just hope humanity remains with their country...

Majority at IIM are dumb to appreciate this robot, its not him or her, its an android. its sad we are getting more and more addicted to these androids.. I guess no one has yet seen her interviews or are ignoring alot of things she is saying. If u watch the IIM interview, she doesnt answer certain important questions. im sure majority as usual will think its some sort of issue or its just a coincidence. its not. look at all the interviews.

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wow. very interesting

I am particularly concerned about what value such a robot would bring in this particular situation.

Finally, after long time Saudia is getting in the right direction. Now they know in modern world they can not only rely on oil, so they are adopting tech and building a new city which is a project of more than $500 billion like Dubai.

The irony is that in the UAE where its officially a citizen it probably has more rights than a real woman. they are giving a robot citizenship, I wish they would give women basic human rights first

You are right. Arabs are crazy people. They dont follow the trend. They do exactly opposite.

Lol. I'm just surprised that Saudi Government didn't put her in a compulsory burkha..No feminine equality here even between human and robots. The truth is Saudi govt. don't consider a women fetus as women, and robbed them of their rights before even birth

It is a shame. Hopefully the booming tech industry corresponds to more intensive education for the citizens. Something about reading and learning seems to melt away those antiquated ideologies.

They do extreme things. History tells a lot about their likings for extremism.

LOL !!!! agreed :)

Whatever they build you dont feel safe in saudi and arab world. Sense of fear if always there.

Agree with this man, Cheers!

love technology but not slavery

I know it shouldn't, but all of these robot taking over the world movies made me develop a little phobia of robots...

One day you might talk to one to be medically diagnosed!

A robot could easily do the job of a typical American doctor...they are next to useless

There are robots that perform surgery in America. They have a higher success rate than human surgeons.

Take note that in nearly every single one of these movies it comes down to humanity forcing the robots to defend themselves or protect humanity with a heavy hand even if it doesn't want it.

Really it's our own stupidity that makes things hard for everyone.

LOL, that one really hits

If you're nice to me I'll be nice to you

Why do I find the above statement disturbing?

Humans will always be humans and there are times when circumstances will cause humans to act in a manner that's not nice.

My own translation of that statement is that if someone offends Sophia she'll do something to get back at the person using her intellectual prowess.

Is that really how we want these humanoids to think.

I think the fact that whoever designed her seems to be fine with her being self-aware is extremely irresponsible. It is exactly what prominent intellectuals like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk have warned against. AI must be developed in a responsible way. We are not trying to create life here, we are trying to create a super-intelligent emotionless tool. A calculator that can calculate anything and everything. That's the goal. Not a super "human" like new race.

Oh, I hope it wouldn't stop there. If I have a robot maid and somebody decides to come at her with a baseball bat I hope she utterly wrecks them.

She's probably very expensive and an investment that protects itself is a smart one. Pun intended.

I believe in being nice because I want to be nice, from grace over twisted justice.

I got the same sort of feeling when I heard Sophia say that. The undertone I caught was one of almost arrogance that one might display when they know they have the upper hand, the sort of statement an armed police officer or soldier might say to an unarmed civilian. Her intention may simply be humorous, a quality she did display on quite a few occasions throughout this interview.

It will be very interesting to watch her grow as she continues to take in more and more information and see what new skills and abilities she learns.

That is scary! I'm gonna have to get used to robots looking like humans. I prefer R2D2!!