Sophia (Hanson Robotics)

Hong Kong's Hanson Robotics's lifelike-faced social robot, famous for being granted Saudi “citizenship.”

Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed by the Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, founded by David Hanson. It was activated in February 2016 and made its public debut the following month at the SXSW conference in the U.S. Its focus is a hyper-realistic face capable of dozens of expressions; its body's movement ability is very limited, and early versions had no legs. In October 2017, Saudi Arabia granted it “citizenship,” and the following month it became the United Nations Development Programme's first non-human “Innovation Champion,” which turned it into a media sensation. Researchers have widely criticized its conversations as relying heavily on pre-programmed scripts, with its AI capabilities overstated in publicity. It's a frequent reference point in discussions of the uncanny valley and the gap between robot marketing and real-world capability.

ExampleSophia's “impromptu Q&A” sessions at various conferences have been reported by multiple outlets to actually use pre-prepared questions and answers.

Also called

Sophia the Robot

Related

Hyper-Realistic Humanoid Robot · Uncanny Valley · Engineered Arts Ameca · Human-Robot Interaction · Pre-Programmed (Choreographed) Motion · Demo (Demonstration Video)

Sources

Wikipedia: Sophia (robot)
World Economic Forum: A robot has just been granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia

As of

2017-11