Saudi Arabia becomes the first country to grant citizenship to a robot
History has been made in Saudi Arabia today as a humanoid robot has been granted citizenship for the first time. The robot, Sophia, took to the stage at a conference in Riyadh this week to express her delight at being given citizenship, which she described as 'historical.'
Not everyone is happy with the Sophia's citizenship, with some describing her as 'bizarre' and others referring to it as 'Terminator in real time.'
Sophia is a humanoid robot designed by Hong Kong firm, Hanson Robotics, who has previously hit the headlines for addressing the UN.
During an exchange with moderator, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Sophia said: 'I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people.'
' I want to use my artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life, like design smarter homes, build better cities of the future. I will do my best to make the world a better place.'
While Sophia is happy with her citizenship, other have expressed concerns on Twitter about it. Kareem Chehayeb said: ' A humanoid robot called Sophia got Saudi citizenship, while millions linger stateless. What a time to be alive.'
GP Burdon added: 'Sorry I'm late for work. I was watching the beginning of the Terminator in real time.' And Grant J Kidney simply described the honour as 'bizarre and terrifying.'