Saudi Arabia becomes the first country in the world that grants citizenship to a robot.
Named Sophia, the woman humanoid created by Hanson Robotics, spoke at the Future Investment Initiative, held in the kingdom’s capital city of Riyadh.
“I am very honored and proud of this unique distinction,” said Sophia while speaking on a panel, without a head covering and cloak normally required of women by the Saudi government. "This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship."
At the event, Sophia also responded to questions raised by moderator and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, asking her about her status as a humanoid and how she concerns people about the future of humanity in a robot-run world.
"You've been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies," she said. "Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system."
Sophia uses technologies with Artificial Intelligence developed by Hanson Robotics during a presentation at the "AI for Good" Global Summit back June 2017.
In March of 2016, Sophia’s creator, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, asked Sophia during a live demonstration at the SXSW festival:
"Do you want to destroy humans?…Please say ‘no.'" Then she responded by a typical blank robot expression: "OK. I will destroy humans."
But for Sophia that according to the company that made it has a "porcelain skin," "slender nose" and "intriguing smile", her comments along the lines was more into using AI to help humans "live a better life," and that "I will do much [sic] best to make the world a better place."
Elon Musk that is vocal about AI and considers it as a real "existential" to human kind, responded on Twitter:
Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What’s the worst that could happen? https://t.co/WX4Kx45csv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2017
Further reading: The Greatest Risk We Face As A Civilization, Is Artificial Intelligence