Sophia, the humanoid robot, has become the first robot to be granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia. She gives facial expressions while talking and can answer any question with some wit. Sophia, appeared on the stage without an ‘abaya’ — a head covering and cloak normally required of women by the Saudi government.
She was interviewed by business writer Andrew Ross Sorkin at a Future Investment Conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, where it was announced that she was a citizen of Saudi Arabia, the first for any robot. The move is part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to promote itself as a destination to develop artificial intelligence.
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A rapt audience listened as Sorkin grilled Sophia over artificial intelligence, 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”.
Sophia, designed to be witty, also took the opportunity to take a jibe at Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX and a staunch opponent of artificial intelligence.
“You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies. Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system,” Sophia said.
Musk took to Twitter to respond to Sophia, saying: “Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What’s the worst that could happen?”
