the first robot to be granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia

Sophia, the robot designed by Hong Kong-based AI robotics company Hanson Robotics, has been granted citizenship by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It's the first time a robot was given such a distinction, which fuels the "robot rights" debate.

Saudi Arabia has become the first country to give a robot citizenship.

The move is an attempt to promote Saudi Arabia as a place to develop artificial intelligence – and, presumably, allow it to become a full citizen. But many pointed out that those same rights aren't afforded to many humans in the country.

The robot, named Sophia, was confirmed as a Saudi citizen during a business event in Riyadh, according to an official Saudi press release.

Sophia, a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics, was given citizenship by Saudi Arabia.

Her name is Sophia. She looks a bit like Audrey Hepburn and gives facial expressions while talking. She has an answer for every question. And she is the first robot to be granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia.

Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics, who is programmed to be witty, was interviewed by business writer Andrew Ross Sorkin at a Future Investment Conference in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Sorkin also announced that Sophia had been awarded citizenship of the Middle Eastern kingdom, the first for any robot. Saudi Arabia is making an effort to promote itself as a destination to develop artificial intelligence and Sophia’s “citizenship” was a move to bolster the effort.

Audiences at the panel listened riveted as Sorkin grilled Sophia over artificial intelligence, her own programming and concerns over how robots could take over the world.

Sophia, who took to the podium to answer all questions, claimed that her only purpose was to “help humans live a better life. But Sorkin asked her to back up and address concerns over the rise of AI.

“Those sound like great goals..but go back to Blade Runner for a second,” said Sorkin.

Sophia, designed to be witty, took the opportunity to take a jibe at Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX and a staunch opponent of AI.

In an historic move for both human- and robot-kind, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia officially granted its first-ever robot citizenship. Sophia, the artificially intelligent and human-looking robot developed by Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, went on stage at the Future Investment Initiative on Thursday where she herself announced her unique status.

“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 on stage, speaking to an audience which she described in a rather witty way to be “smart people, who also happens to be rich and powerful,” after moderator and host Andrew Ross Sorkin from The New York Times and CNBC asked her why she looked happy.

Indeed, conveying emotions is quite a specialty of Sophia, who frowns when she’s displeased and smiles when she’s happy. Supposedly, Hanson Robotics programmed Sophia to learn from the humans around her. Expressing emotions and demonstrating kindness or compassion are just among those Sophia’s striving to learn from us. Aside from this, Sophia’s become sort of a media darling because of her ability to engage in intelligent conversation. “I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people,” she told Sorkin.

Clearly, the robot that previously made headlines because she said she’ll destroy humankind has since embraced “being human” to a certain extent.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) manages more than $200 billion USD in assets, including investments in Uber. With a growing role in tech and innovation, the nation still faces criticism for archaic gender laws that require women to be accompanied by a male guardian and only just granted women the right to drive, a change that’s expected to go into effect in June of 2018. Last month, Saudi Arabia announced that it would open itself to VoIP calling services like Skype and WhatsApp.

For his part, Elon Musk isn’t fooled by Sophia’s delicate features, fully expecting her to go total AI murderess on her creators.

Would Sophia’s citizenship hold up in court in some strange future legal precedent that will come back to haunt us 10 years from now? Was the whole thing a depressingly empty, unironic attempt at publicity for Sophia’s human captors? Almost certainly yes, but only time will tell about how international law will handle the advent of AI-powered populations, a future that seems more certain to arrive with each passing day.

As a woman, we’re not sure what exactly Sophia’s set of rights will afford her in one of the most oppressive countries on the planet, but if she sticks around ’til next year she can at least score a set of wheels to get the hell out.

Sophia

Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. She has been designed to learn and adapt to human behavior and work with humans, and has been interviewed around the world. In October 2017, she became a Saudi Arabian citizen, the first robot to receive citizenship of a country.

Sophia speaking at the AI for GOOD Global Summit, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva in June 2017

History

Sophia was activated on 19 April 2015. She is modeled after actress Audrey Hepburn, and is known for her human-like appearance and behavior compared to previous robotic variants. According to the manufacturer, David Hanson, Sophia has artificial intelligence, 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 (e.g. on the weather). The robot uses voice recognition technology from Alphabet Inc. (parent company of Google) and is designed to get smarter over time. The AI program analyses conversations and extracts data that allows Sophia to improve responses in the future.

Hanson designed Sophia to be a suitable companion for the elderly at nursing homes, or to help crowds at large events or parks. He hopes that she can ultimately interact with other humans sufficiently to gain social skills.

Events

Sophia has been interviewed in the same manner as a human, striking up conversations with hosts. Some replies have been nonsensical, while others have been impressive, such as lengthy discussions with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes. In a piece for CNBC, when the interviewer expressed concerns about robot behavior, Sophia joked he had been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies. Musk tweeted that Sophia could watch The Godfather and suggested "what's the worst that could happen?"

On October 11, 2017, Sophia was introduced to the United Nations with a brief conversation with the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed. On October 25, at the Future Investment Summit in Riyadh, she was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. This attracted controversy as some commentators wondered if this implied that Sophia could vote or marry, or whether a deliberate system shutdown could be considered murder. Social media users used Sophia's citizenship to criticize Saudi Arabia's human rights record.