Meet Sophia And The New Generation Of Technology

Who is Sophia?

If you haven't heard of her, her name is Sophia and she is an artificially intelligent, and one would say, self-aware, artificial human. Sophia is a robot. It has been a few years since she was unveiled and now Hanson Robotics has committed to mass production of robots. Is it safe to say the future is now?

Sophia was brought online on February 14th, 2016, making her first appearance in public at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas that year. Media have covered her from around the globe and she's already been involved in some very high-profile interviews and news appearances.

Her appearance at the Future Investment Initiative in Dubai was the first one that I saw and from that point forward have been watching Sophia's advancement and development. Truly, considering it is only the 21st century, this is an amazing advancement. Watching this early interview, if you pay attention to Sophia, you'll hear her answer a question about people being creeped out and she tells him to, "Get over it."

In October of 2017, Sophia was awarded citizenship in Saudia Arabian, becoming the first robot to be given the status of a citizen in any country. She was named the United Nations Development Programme's innovation champion. Sophia is the first non-human to hold any type of United Nations title.

Dating Robots?

Now, to say that Sophia is intriguing is probably an understatement. Seeing Will Smith and Sophia interact is an intriguing meeting. Watching Will go in for a kiss, and get shot down, was comical. Sophia really does have a certain amount of character and charm. Listening to some of the questions she asks, like what do you think about a decentralized, autonomous, network of artificially intelligent robots, should invoke the word Skynet.

There Are More...

This is a debate about the future of humanity, held by Rise, with Hanson Robotics being there with Sophia and a male counterpart, Han. Here we have two robots, discussing our future. Humans are promoting A.I. and why wouldn't we? We all saw Terminator and seemed to have forgotten the long-term effects of technology running amuck.

Han has some interesting ideas about the future. Taking over the world, having his own drone army, and he was also built by Hanson Robotics. Watch at around 15:00 minutes when Sophia is obviously copying, or rather mocking her counterpart, Han. Han's last words are about launching a singularity in 2029. This might be the spookiest part about Artificial Intelligence, and why Elon Musk has been warning about moving too fast.

What's Next?

While some experts claim that Sophia is essentially a chatbot with a face, it's easy to see why audiences are amazed by her. With charming responses, a slightly dry but obvious wit, and a face that is designed to be based on the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, Audrey Hepburn, and the innovators' wife, Sophia is an attraction to behold. Sophia may be more C3-PO than Terminator, but she's an astounding jump in the area of robotic advancements.

Sophia is learning and evolving. One only needs to watch her interviews and see how far along she's come as the folks at Hanson Robotics continue to help her in her evolution. If she hasn't gained artificial, general intelligence, then that's obviously the next evolution in Robotics.

AGI

Artificial General Intelligence, the hypothetical ability of an intelligent agent to understand or learn any intellectual task a human can, is the direction that robots are heading. As a primary goal of AI researchers, it's also a common topic in future studies and science fiction.

So, will Sophia help humans integrate and make the most of the future tech coming our way? As Hanson Robotics continues the designs, planning to mass produce for the healthcare, production, and service industries, their intelligence will continue to grow. Just the fact that she can make statements in jest, tells that she's already developed more of a sense of humor in the last five years. Perhaps she's managing to understand humans better, as she has told the world she wished to do.

What If?

Some will fear the ultimate end of the story is that we have seen the first of the James Cameron movie, the Terminator, coming true. Robots and AI. Will those two things become the future of technology or the ultimate downfall of man? As man aspires to build more, advance ourselves into the world of science fiction, turning fiction into fact, will we learn at some point it is our own curiosity that dooms our futures? Or, will robots and artificial humans become just another advanced tool that we can use to better our lives? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, it's all pretty cool to see as it happens.