In a landmark decision, Saudi Arabia became the first country to grant citizenship to a robot. The machine has been identified as Sophia the Humanoid, and she is supposed to bear a resemblance to American actress and activist Audrey Hepburn.
"I am very honoured and proud for this unique distinction," Sophia said in an interview with moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin, while also expressing happiness about being around 'rich and intelligent people'. "This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship," Sophia said at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Wednesday.
Sophia was created by David Hanson for Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, which is known for making human-like robots. While demonstrating her human-like abilities, which have gone viral thanks to a video on YouTube, Sophia showed her angry and sad faces.
"I want to live and work with humans, so I need to express emotions to understand humans and build trust with people," she said."I want to use my artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life. I strive to become an empathetic robot."
When asked whether robots can be self-aware, Sophia responded. "Well, let me ask you this back: How do you know you are human?"
She even took a dig at Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who had in the past expressed reservation at the high speed at which AI was developing. "You've been watching too many Hollywood movies. If you're nice to me, then I'll be nice to you," she said.
Interestingly, the citizenship was met with criticism on Twitter, with commentators saying that a "humanoid gets citizenship, while millions remain stateless. What a time to be alive."
