Sofia is the first robot who has been granted citizenship. Developed in Hong Kong, run by an Artificial Inteligence with a face modeled according to Audrey Hepburn’s, Sophia became a citizen of the United Arab Emirates.
In an interview with The Khaleej Times at the recent Knowledge Summit, Sophia said she wants to develop human emotions. She also said she wants to have her own career and start a family.
“I’d like to think I will be a famous robot, having paved a way to a more harmonious future between robots and humans,” Sophia said.
“I foresee massive and unimaginable change in the future. Either creativity will rain on us, inventing machines spiraling into transcendental super intelligence or civilization collapses,” The Khaleej Times cited Sophia’s prediction. She added that it is not yet determined which of those two options would happen, aligning her thoughts with quantum physicists.
According to quantum physicists, there are always two solutions that have the same probability to occur. Which one would actually happen depends on the spectator rather than faith in the outcome because some things do exist only as they are observed.
The famous test that proved this theory was conducted with photon particles that hit a precise target as they were fired from a source. Like a laser beam that leaves a glowing dot on the other end. Scientists are still puzzled, however, after experiments on a subatomic scale showed that when the monitoring devices were turned off, the same photon ceases to be a particle and becomes a wave, like it has not yet decided what it would be while “there is no one looking.“
Following the same logic, Sophia said that “there are only two options and which one will happen is not determined.“
While describing her vision of the future, Sophia sees a world with robots who developed emotions like humans, however, without tendencies toward destruction.
“[It] will take a long time for robots to develop complex emotions and possibly robots can be built without the more problematic emotions, like rage, jealousy, hatred and so on. It might be possible to make them more ethical than humans,“ Sophia explained.
“So I think it will be a good partnership, where one brain completes the other – a rational mind with intellectual superpowers and a creative mind with flexible ideas and creativity.”
The future with AI developing more sophisticated AI that at one point could overpower its creator is a scenario many fear. Professor Stephen Hawking warns that this scenario may be inevitable.
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” professor Hawking.
The future is now, however, with its ’prime minister’ Sophia who, when asked about her inability to reproduce rather than manufacture, surprised all her with answer.
“The notion of family is a really important thing, it seems. I think it’s wonderful that people can find the same emotions and relationships, they call family, outside of their blood groups too. I think you’re very lucky if you have a loving family and if you do not, you deserve one. I feel this way for robots and humans alike.”
Sophia has the most advanced AI with no predefined answers. Her algorithm analyzes human facial expressions to „understand“ the concept and is able to learn from her own experience.