Robot Sophia was given Saudi Arabian citizenship during the Future Investment Initiative economic conference in Riyadh. As photographs and videos of Sophia began to spread on the Internet, many began to wonder why the robot had already achieved greater rights than women in the country.

Sophia, created by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, gave a talk to the audience in English without the headscarf or abaya that Saudi women are required to wear in public.

"It is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with citizenship." Please welcome the newest Saudi: Sophia. #FII2017 pic.twitter.com/bsv5LmKwlf

“I am very proud of this unique distinction. This is a historical fact, I am the first robot in the world to be granted citizenship,” said Sofia.

Sophia can animate a full range of facial expressions, recognize faces, and carry on a conversation. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative 2017, Sophia demonstrated her savvy response to a question about the threat of artificial intelligence. "You've read too much Elon Musk and watched too many Hollywood movies," she said. - Don't worry, if I like you, I'll be nice to you. Treat me like a smart input/output system."

Saudi netizens responded positively to the event, using the hashtag “robot with Saudi citizenship.” Almost 30,000 messages appeared online in the first 24 hours of the announcement.

But other users were not so happy about the event. They introduced another hashtag - “Sofia calls for abandoning guardianship.” This hashtag has already been used more than 10,000 times. This is because under the Saudi guardianship system, every woman must be accompanied in public by a male companion, usually a family member who has the authority to act on the woman's behalf.

“Sofia doesn’t have a guardian and she doesn’t wear an abaya, how did this happen?” - one of the Twitter users commented on the situation.

In addition to comparing Sophia to Saudi women, people discussed the ease with which the robot gained citizenship.

This robot has acquired Saudi citizenship before kafala workers who have been living in the country their entire lives https://t.co/RRCMH2rtZ8

Journalist Murtaza Hussain wrote: “This robot received Saudi Arabian citizenship before kafala workers who lived their entire lives in this country did.”

Under Saudi Arabian law, foreign workers cannot leave the country without the employer's permission, and this is just one of the elements of the kafala system that limits the rights of foreign workers. The Gulf kingdom relies on hundreds of thousands of workers from abroad. There is a thriving black market in fugitive migrant workers who are unable to leave the country due to exit visa laws.

"A humanoid robot named Sophia has been granted Saudi Arabian citizenship while millions of people wait," said journalist Kareem Chahayeb.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to highlight a series of reforms being introduced by the authorities. For example, women were allowed to participate in the National Day of Saudi Arabia: in honor of the 87th anniversary of the founding of the kingdom, for the first time in all these years, women were allowed to come to the stadium where the festive events were held. And in September 2017, the ban on women was lifted.

If you think that the construction of facilities for the Olympics in Sochi or the APEC summit in Vladivostok are megaprojects, then all of Arabia is laughing at you now!

Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman announced the construction of the future city of NEOM in the Arabian Desert, on the shores of the Red Sea. For this purpose, the country's authorities have allocated 26,500 square meters. kilometers of land is 10 and a half times the area of ​​Moscow.

It is assumed that in the future the city's territory will expand beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia and will capture part of the lands of Egypt and Jordan. In addition, a bridge will be built from Neom to Egypt across the Red Sea!

Since the city will be built from scratch, it will immediately begin to apply all the innovations that can now be imagined. It is assumed that more robots will live in Neom than people, and all objects will operate exclusively on solar and wind energy. There is no doubt that all public transport will be electric, and it will be controlled by an autopilot.

In the long term, Neom should become Dubai's main competitor in the region, only more advanced. In a statement, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund said that in Neom, "all services and processes will be 100% automated" - which should make it "the most efficient city in the world." The Washington Post is already calling the future city a “Mecca for robots.”

The volume of investment in the construction of the city is now estimated at $500 billion. In addition to the Saudi government, both national and foreign investors are ready to invest money. For example, the Japanese SoftBank Vision fund has already signed a cooperation agreement.

“We try to work only with dreamers who strive to create something new and extraordinary. This is not a place for ordinary people and companies,” says Prince Muhammad.

Speaking at the same conference, Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert said that in Neom, robots "will be able to perform a variety of functions, covering areas such as security, logistics, delivery and even caring for the elderly and infirm."

And the prince made another important statement. He said the city project would exist outside of the "existing government framework." That is, it will be a semi-autonomous territory.

Perhaps there will appear not only a free economic zone (which is quite typical for new Arab cities), but also something like a world capital, a cosmopolitan territory where some Muslim traditions and prohibitions will not work. For example, in an advertising video about Neom, women appear without headscarves, in short dresses and sportswear, working and having fun on an equal basis with men... However, so far these are just guesses.

Muhammad also said that there would be no room for "anything traditional" in Neom, but was referring to ways of producing and extracting energy. The construction of Neom is part of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to abandon the oil needle and diversify the economy, but it will, of course, be built with oil money.

Everything happens for the first time, so the time has come when a car received a citizen’s passport, with the ensuing privileges and responsibilities. Her name is Sofia - this is important, since the robot positions itself as a woman. Moderately wise, reasonable, but powerful, with character. website I began to wonder why, from the very first official appeals “to the people,” Sofushka made so many enemies for herself.

It’s worth clarifying right away - Sofia is not related to the Terminator, she is quite a harmless machine of a humanoid appearance, with a face that can imitate emotions. The electronic girl's strong point: conversations. Engineers from the Hanson robotics company did not endow her with artificial intelligence due to a lack of technology, but Sofia is aware of her shortcoming. And she promises to improve, learn everything and become a full-fledged citizen. She is absolutely sincerely proud of the privilege of being the first on this path.

Sofia easily and beautifully talks about her plans for the future and the tasks of people like her. Imagine a teacher or nanny for an autistic child with an endless supply of patience. An engineer who builds smart houses and never makes mistakes, a cleaner with absolute attention to the cleanliness of the premises, an endlessly responsible postman, etc. Corrosive journalists hastened to clarify: what about the human factor? How will the robot react to hooligans, lazy people, slobs who will interfere with it?

With a charming grin, in which it is easy to guess a smile, Sofia replied: “You watch too many blockbusters and in vain listen to Musk.” This is a billionaire-innovator-adventurer who, among other things, advocates the extermination of robots before they gain real strength and independence. Otherwise they will go to war against stupid people, as has been repeatedly predicted in fiction. However, such modern geniuses as Stephen Hawking also predict that the development of AI threatens humanity.

Sofia, like a true woman, answered diplomatically: “Don’t be afraid, if you like me, I won’t offend you.” Well, thanks, but what if it’s the other way around? In 2016, while testing Sophia's prototype, the robot was asked if it wanted to destroy people. “Okay, I’ll do it” - oh, and how much noise there was then. The most interesting thing in what is happening is that Sofia’s citizenship was granted by Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights are traditionally infringed. Will this become a stumbling block, after which the female robot will get angry and begin a robo-jihad against the humans?

Saudi Arabia has officially recognized an anthropomorphic robot as its citizen, becoming the first country in human history to grant this status to artificial intelligence.

Sophia, a humanoid robot created by Hanson Robotics, announced that it has received citizenship during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia.

“I am very proud to have the privilege of being in a unique position. The fact that I became the first robot in the world to receive citizenship is a historical event,” she said.

Details of Sofia's citizenship were not discussed. It remains unclear whether she will receive the same rights as ordinary citizens of the country, or whether Saudi Arabia will develop a special system of rules regarding robots.

The system could work in a similar way to the set of rules tabled by the European Parliament earlier this year that would give AI robots "electronic personality" status and give them certain rights and responsibilities.

Sofia wants to “build trusting relationships with people”

During the discussion, which took place on October 25, 2017, Sofia spoke about how she sees the future of artificial intelligence and how she plans to use its capabilities.

Context

Artificial intelligence will lead to a new arms race

Wired Magazine 09.09.2017

Russian threat in the field of artificial intelligence

Bloomberg 09/06/2017

“We won’t notice how the world will be taken over by artificial intelligence”

Radio Liberty 12/10/2016

Artificial intelligence will be able to experience emotions

Zhongguo Kejiwan 12/01/2016

Will artificial intelligence replace investors?

Nihon Keizai 11/07/2016 “I want to live and work with people, so I need to express emotions to understand people and build trust with people,” she said.

She seemed to shy away from questions about robot self-awareness and instead tried to joke about Elon Musk's claims that artificial intelligence poses a "fundamental threat to human civilization."

“You've been listening to too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies,” she told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. “Don’t worry, if you treat me well, I will do the same to you.” Treat me like a smart input/output system.”

A robot with human qualities

Created by Hanson Robotics founder David Hanson, Sophia the robot possesses three human qualities: creativity, empathy and compassion.

Her face was inspired by actress Audrey Hepburn, and the skin-like covering hides the chips in her head.

To make Sophia as human as possible, Hanson gave her the ability to express various emotions. Her eyes can change color depending on the lighting.

Sofia recently made headlines after she played rock, paper, scissors on talk show host Jimmy Fallon. She also appeared on the cover of fashion magazine Elle Brazil.

The future role of robots is causing increasing concern

Many experts have already expressed their concerns about how humans and robots will be able to get along with each other in the future.

In an article recently published on Dezeen, designer Madeline Gannon suggested that rapid advances in robotics in the global industry could threaten the livelihoods of countless people, and called on developers and designers to play an active role in determining how How exactly these technologies will be used.

“Despite all its benefits, robotization has an extremely negative impact on people,” says Gannon. “At this point, we must firmly understand that robots are not going away. So, instead of continuing towards the gradual extinction of humanity, it is time for us to think about how humans and robots will coexist on our planet.”

Meanwhile, more than 100 leading experts in the field of emerging technologies, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter in which they called on the UN to ban the development of killer robots.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

However, the first country that decided to issue citizenship to a robot was Saudi Arabia. This became known at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh.

The first holder of android citizenship was Sophia, a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics. The robot's creator, Dr. David Hanson, used images of Audrey Hepburn and his wife. The robot he developed is capable of imitating 62 different facial expressions, establishing eye contact, remembering people and maintaining a dialogue.

Over the past year, Sofia has repeatedly appeared in the media with statements of varying degrees of outrageousness. At the same time, the android was initially intended to work in the field of education and healthcare, but gradually Sofia turned into a media person.

Representatives of the kingdom do not say exactly what opportunities Saudi Arabian citizenship will give to the robot. It is also unclear whether Sofia will receive equal rights to humans or whether special rules will be established for her. As Futurism notes, for now this gesture on the part of Saudi Arabia looks rather symbolic, especially in light of recent reports that the country is going to build a giant futuristic metropolis populated by robots.

After the announcement of citizenship, Sofia gave interview to CNBC journalist Andrew Sorkin. She noted that she considers it an honor to receive citizenship and plans to live and work with people in the future. According to Sofia, with the help of her artificial intelligence she will make life better for humanity.

The world's first trackless electric train has been tested in China

During the conversation, Sorkin asked whether robots would rebel against people. Sofia has previously joked about her plans to take over the world. In response, Sofia said that Sorkin “reads too much Elon Musk and watches too many Hollywood films.” According to the android, it is only a data input and output system, so it cannot make decisions on its own.

The head of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, responded to Sofia’s statement on his microblog on Twitter. With his characteristic irony, Musk suggested loading scripts from the gangster drama “The Godfather” into Sofia’s system. “What’s so bad that could happen?” Musk wrote.

Thus, the head of Tesla once again hinted at the threat posed by robots, especially if their development is carried out illiterately and uncontrolled. Musk is for banning military robots, and also believes that AI needs to be limited and regulated before it becomes too much. Giving robots human qualities, according to Musk, is unacceptable. Recently, the entrepreneur also sharply criticized developers who elevate AI to the status of a deity.