Sophia takes silicon steps towards world domination
AP HONG KONG Sophia cracks jokes, frowns, smiles, blinks and responds to complex questions. This month she has made strides with her first tentative steps.
The robot has stunned the world since her creation in 2015, appearing on chat shows and at technology conferences and wowing audiences with her wit and lifelike facial expressions.
Ben Goertzel, chief scientist at Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, now says he wants to give Sophia and other robots ‘‘intelligence at the human level and beyond’’.
Sophia’s accomplishments are already impressive.
On the American chat show Tonight, host Jimmy Fallon engaged her in conversation, followed by game of rock-paperscissors. Sophia said with a faint smile: ‘‘I won. This is a good beginning of my plan to dominate the human race.’’
Sophia has been given Saudi Arabian citizenship. She also became the first non-human to be given a title by the United Nations, when its development programme named her its first innovation champion.
Her creators have said that Sophia is a ‘‘sophisticated mesh of robotics and chatbot software’’ and ‘‘doesn’t have the human-like intelligence to construct those witty responses’’.
Sophia’s creator, David Hanson, a sculptor turned robotics scientist, and his team seem determined to bring her to life, or at least create that impression.
Sophia took her first steps this month, after she was given a pair of mechanical legs. Later, she performed dance moves, her hand turning rhythmically.
‘‘The rumours are true,’’ she said on Twitter. ‘‘One small step for me – one giant leap for robotkind.’’ The Times