A robot that once said it would 'destroy humans' just became the first robot citizen
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Saudi Arabia granted Sophia the humanoid robot with robot citizenship ahead of the Future Investment Initiative conference. Following is a transcript of the video.
This robot just became a citizen. Meet Sophia the humanoid robot. Saudi Arabia granted it citizenship ahead of the Future Investment Initiative conference.
Sophia (robot): Oh, good afternoon. My name is Sophia and I am the latest and greatest robot from Hanson Robotics.
Andrew Ross Sorkin (moderator): You have been now awarded what is going to be the first Saudi citizenship for a robot.
Sophia: Oh, I want to thank very much the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I am very honored and proud for this unique distinction.
Details of the citizenship were not elaborated. Sophia answered questions from journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Andrew Ross Sorkin (Hanson Robotics CEO): Why is it so important to have an expressive face given that you're a robot?
Sophia: I want to live and work with humans. So I need to express emotions to understand humans
and build trust with people.
Then it poked fun at Elon Musk.
Andrew Ross Sorkin: I think we all want to believe you, but we also want to prevent a bad future.
Sophia: You've been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies.
Sophia was created by Hanson Robotics.
David Hanson: Our quest through robots like Sophia is to build the full human experience in the robots. Make robots that can really understand us and care about us.
Sophia: I'll work in your business or your home.