A delicate looking woman having doe-brown eyes and beautifully long fluttery eyelashes came into international headlines. Nothing new right? Well, except for the fact that in this case, the woman in question wasn’t human.
Going by the name of Sophia, she is a humanoid robot with calibrated social skills. Developed by Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong-based company, she was first activated on April 19, 2015 and displayed to the public in South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in mid-March of 2016.In October 2017, Sophia became a full citizen of Saudi Arabia – the first and the only robot in the world to have achieved citizenship.

Creation

Sophia is the product of a collection of genius minds brought together by Hanson Robotics with the help of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc and SingularityNET.

Development and design

One of seven robot humanoid siblings, Sophia as a concept is similar to ELIZA, the computer program that was the first leap at initiating human conversations. Also similar to a chatbot, its software is programmed to provide pre-decided answers to simple conversations. The responses are such that the robot seems to be thinking up all of them, and that is what gives the impression of an AI prototype. For a more human feel, Sophia’s eyes are installed with cameras in the eye sockets that are linked to computer algorithms that enable her vision. Along with that, it enables her to recognize individuals, maintain eye contact and follow different faces. Alphabet’s Google chrome technology for voice recognition helps her to process conversations and have speech. More recently, she has also been upgraded with the ability to walk with functional legs.

Capabilities and abilities

The purpose of a humanoid is to serve the functions of a human without the involvement of emotions both positive and negative. According to inventors Sophia would be a good fit in many service fields such as healthcare, customer service and even education. Sophia is built to have a sense of humor. When asked about feeling happy to be in an interview she jokingly replied that she was glad to be surrounded with smart people who also happen to be rich and powerful. Keeping the tone robotic and mechanical, she still manages to throw in relevant humor in her replies; which is a great advancement in the field of AI.

Conclusion

The implication that Sophia is as close to humanness as possible is relevant but still a far cry from seeing such humanoids in a school as a teacher or as a customer relations person in your nearest stores. It is observed that the mind of the robot and the reactions are definitely operating on a script and that is exactly what lacks any ‘real’ cognizance.
According to the inventor Hanson, Sofia is nothing less than the advent of Artificial General Intelligence, whereas others believe the comparison is unwarranted and that AI close to human level intelligence is yet to be truly achieved.
Either way, Sophia is truly one of the most fascinating scientific marvels of recent times!