Sophia, the first humanoid with a citizenship, was developed by “Hanson Robotics”, Hong Kong, and modeled after Audrey Hepburn. Sophia has artificial intelligence, visual data processing, and facial recognition.
The most awaited event at the IIT Bombay for all tech lovers turned somewhat disappointing on Saturday with the first humanoid Robot to get citizenship, Sophia, malfunctioned during its speech at the Tech-Fest in the Institute on Saturday afternoon.
As the crowd of over 3000 people waited with baited breath, dressed in an off-white saree with an orange blouse, Sophia was a spectacle to watch, especially the way she addressed the gathering and panned her ‘neck’ with an upright gait, almost as if she was a human. She began her demonstration, answering the initial few questions smartly and impressed the audience with her wits.
In a conversation, which happened in an interview format, with what seemed like pre-decided questions, the humanoid said there should not be competition but a collaboration between humans and robots.
However, after the initial questions, she stopped responding to questions. When the anchor asked her opinion about spending so much money on robots when there are so many issues she just stopped talking.
The organizers then announced that they would have to stop the event due to a technical issue, something which was attributed to Internet connectivity issues by the organizers. As the crowd was about to leave the hall, the organizers then said that they would resume in a while.
When the programme finally started again, Sophia was back to talking amidst much cheer from the crowd.
Sophia said humans have amazing social and creative skills which she was learning, courtesy human programmers.
However, developments in artificial intelligence, which she called as something which will aid the civilizational story and machine learning, will help in self-learning in the future, she said.
Referring to sections of people looking at technology as a “threat” to civilization, Sophia said, “It is science which created me, but philosophy will take me forward”.
Sophia said she is two-years-old and knows English and a bit of Chinese, adding that it was only a matter of time she knows all languages
Developments in artificial intelligence help me recognize faces, speech, and languages at present, she said, adding that there were 3,141 people around her at IIT-Bombay’s Techfest. Sophia’s presence was the biggest draw at the annual festival and organizers had to arrange one more “show” of hers because of the curious audience.
The organizers had to arrange a second slot as there was a huge queue outside the auditorium to watch Sophia.
This was Sofia’s maiden visit to India after making headlines to become the first robot in the world to be recognized as a citizen. She politely declined a marriage proposal from a Facebook user in awe of her beauty.
This is not the first time a humanoid was displayed in the country. Lenders like the City Union and HDFC Bank had showcased such robots capable of undertaking limited banking transactions in branches in the last two years
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