Robot Sophia, expected in Bucharest this spring

Sophia, the social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics, the first such robot that has been declared a citizen by Saudi Arabia, is coming to Bucharest on May 11, to attend the Brand Minds business conference, held at Sala Palatului.

Sophia was activated on April 19, 2015 and made her first public appearance in mid-March 2016 in Austin, Texas, United States. She is able to display more than 62 facial expressions.  In October 2017, the robot became a Saudi Arabian citizen, the first robot to receive citizenship of any country. In November 2017, Sophia was named the United Nations Development Programme’s first ever Innovation Champion, and the first non-human to be given any United Nations title.

Asked if robots can have consciousness and if they can know that are robots, Sophia answered: “How can you know you are human?”.

Sophia was created by Hanson Robotics in collaboration with AI developers, including Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, who built her voice recognition system, and SingularityNET, which powers her brain.

According to the manufacturer, Sophia uses artificial intelligences, visual data processing and facial recognition. Sophia also imitates human gestures and facial expressions and is able to answer certain questions and to make simple conversations on predefined topics. The robot is modeled after actress Audrey Hepburn and is known for her human-like appearance and behavior compared to previous robotic versions.

Invited to ABC TV, when asked how much mysogyny and sexism is in the world, Sophia replied that it is rather concerned about discrimination against robots, pleading for equal rights with people or even more, arguing robots have less mental defects than human beings.

Another shocking statement was when Sophia said that all droids should have families and children.