The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently granted citizenship to a robot, Sophia. Sophia is a lifelike female-shaped android. “She” looks approximately like a human woman of indeterminate age and speaks in a feminine voice. Sophia was “interviewed” at an investment meet where she was granted citizenship.
Sophia is the creation of a Hong Kong-based company, Hanson Robotics. She has a flexible face, which “expresses emotions”. She is designed to work with human beings and use “her” artificial intelligence (AI) to help humans “live better lives”. Therefore, as she explained, she needs to understand human emotions and build relationships where humans trust
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