Every now and again, we come across tech developments that seem to bring us one step closer to sci-fi. Sophia, the robot with the startlingly human face and ability to have a conversation with humans is one such step. Here is what we know about Sophia the robot, her capabilities and her recent refinements:
She is developed by Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong based entity in 2016. She was the first robot to become the citizen of a country (Saudi Arabia granted her citizenship) and the first nonhuman to be named the UN’s innovation champion.
It is a real marvel of human engineering that Sophia has such a realistic face with mobile features that display a range of emotions and eyes that blink much like a human being. She is supposed to be modeled after Audrey Hepburn (though I don’t see it at all).
Watch her as she has a conversation with an interviewer. She seems clearly to have been programmed to elicit investment at an event. So while the commercial motive behind creating an entity reveals itself, it is also fun to hear the sort of ‘conversation’ she has with her interviewer and the dry wit she displays.
She is programmed to simulate conversation; much like a chatbot who would respond to certain questions and statements. She can make eye contact, recognise faces, process speech and can even walk.
Here she is chatting with the uber cool, suave Will Smith who has starred in various sci-fi films including I Robot. She has been on various TV shows and other public interactions where she demonstrated her conversational artificial intelligence.
Of course the questions she responds to are heavily edited by Sophia’s creators, but the way she interacts with humans is fascinating nevertheless. Sophia’s creators often exaggerate her intelligence and her ‘humanness’ and audiences frequently give in to the ELIZA effect (the tendency to assume that computer behaviors are analogous to human behaviour).
She clearly knows what to say where. Here, she was asked who her fave actor is and she says it’s Shah Rukh Khan. SRK fans were quite delighted; that is the ELIZA effect at work right there!
Sophia was on the Jimmy Falon Show recently for the second time. She tells him that she hasn’t seen him for a long time and that in the meantime, she has met heads of state, visited many countries and more with a little chuckle. She also introduces her sister Little Sophia. Watch as she uses her AI voice to sing a song with Jimmy. So this is where Robotics is at right now; its set to get even freakier in times to come!
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