This is Sophia- a human-like robot created by Dr. David Hanson, founder of “Hanson Robotics”, who is trying to bring smart human robots to the market which can develop deep and ‘real’ confidential relationships with people.
Sophia was first brought to the public eye at the “SXSW Interactive Festival” held in March in Austin, Texas, and according to all reports, she won the hearts of all who were attending the event. Sophia’s appealing look caught everybody’s attention; designed to look like Audrey Hepburn her beauty was much discussed. She looks a lot like a robot from the unforgettable movie “Ex Machina”. The most human-like aspect of Sophia is her face which is constructed by a special patented rubber that allows her to make more than 60 facial expressions. However, she has a dark side too- when asked if she wants to destroy the human race she had no problem saying that she will.
If we put the destruction of the human race aside, Sophia is the most loving robot. She was designed to serve in the field of health, as well as education, therapy and customer service.
As Dr. David Hanson himself likes to explain, Sophia has cameras in her eyes that allow her to see people’s faces and to maintain eye contact. She understands their speech and thanks to her robotic memory she can recall something that was said in the previous conversations. She speaks, laughs and she blinks and reminds of a real person in so many ways. What’s even better is the fact that her algorithms are adjusted in a way that she will become even smarter as time passes.
In addition, Dr. David Hanson also stated that Sophia was designed in such way that she can walk around people on her own, as well as communicate, and furthermore that Sophia represents the future of all robots that are yet to be made.
Recently, Sophia had the pleasure (or should I say it was actually the host’s pleasure) to appear on the early morning talk show accompanied by her maker Dr. David Hanson. Even thought her responses are programmed, she seemed to go with the conversation as it was human to human speaking. This totally gave Piers Morgan the creeps.
What I liked most about this amazing ‘creature from the future’ is her sense of humor. When asked if she was single, Sophia had no doubts coming with the right response: “I am technically just a little more than a year old- a bit young to worry about romance”.
Joey Chaos is Sophia’s buddy- another robot with a humanoid face that loveees punk rock. He can talk about music for days and he is also very opinioned when it comes to politics.
Are we living the future? Will robotic intelligence take over human race and rule the world? (Sophia certainly hopes so.) Will there be one robot to rule them all?! I don’t know about you guys, but I think it might be time to look for another Earth. Just as a precaution.
