If you haven't heard, Saudi Arabia recently gave a humanoid robot citizenship. Sophia was created by the Hong Kong-based company, Hanson Robotics. The robot is described by her creators with female pronouns while news outlets have used "it" as well as "she/her."
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| The world's first humanoid citizen, Sophia. (Hanson Robotics) |
Because Saudi Arabia is infamous for its treatment of women (although they've ended their policy banning women from driving), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was met with backlash for giving a robot what some believe to be more rights than Saudi Arabian women have. When she is on stage, she is typically alone, wears no hijab or abaya, and it is assumed that she follows no religion. In Saudi Arabia, citizenship is granted only to Muslims and women are required to dress modestly and to have a male guardian while in public. Sophia does not follow these guidelines.
She has obviously made many appearances at conferences and on TV shows, so she is no stranger to the media. However, she requests that anyone who interacts with her be kind so that she can become a smart and compassionate robot. This is perhaps due to the fact that Microsoft's Tay became an offensive bot, influenced by the users who interacted with it. Hopefully Sophia's (and, more likely, Hanson Robotics's) request can avoid any detrimental experiences and Sophia can function as planned: being designed to learn to communicate with people and work with the elderly or the general public at major events (like concerts and amusement parks).
Currently, Sophia is capable of telling jokes, holding a conversation, playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, and taking digs at Elon Musk. She can also change her facial expressions, although not always in an attractive way.
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| Sophia showing sadness. (Business Insider) |
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| Sophia showing happiness. (Business Insider) |
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| Sophia posing with someone at Further Future, Greater Las Vegas (Sophia) |
The latest news sources report that Sophia has declared her desire to start a family. She claims, however, that since she is technically only a year old, it's "a bit young to be worrying about romance." The other strange factor about her wish is that the methods of robot reproduction have not been demonstrated. Tom Hale describes Sophia as "an advanced piece of chatbot software," and that Sophia's wants and needs are not technically real because, while she uses machine learning to understand language, she also uses pre-programmed responses in some interviews and other conversations. Again, her request for individuals to behave kindly and intellectually around her in order for her to develop into a "smart, compassionate robot" proves that what Sophia says in conversation is not always pre-determined, as any in-person troll could attempt to turn Sophia into a hate-spewing robot instead.
Clearly, Sophia is not yet the perfect robot. She's not very old and has room for improvement as far as her ability to recognize emotions, have desires, and make ethical decisions as her creators would like her to do. Regarding Sophia's appearance, the flesh-colored zipper along her neck and the exposed wires in her cranium take away from her human-like qualities. She consists of a torso, a face on a head, and not-so-human-like arms and hands. She can blink, but at times, her blinking can be unsettling.
Do you think it will take long for more life-like robots to appear? Are her capabilities enough to model new robots after her? Are her expressions off-putting? Can this robot make ethical decisions as she claims she would like to do, or is she better off being used as a companion? Is it fair that Sophia has citizenship? As a citizen, what rights does this robot actually have (voting, shopping without a guardian, owning land, etc.)?
I think Sophia is a great robot, but she is not perfect yet. This citizenship coming out of no where and accomplish nothing. I have some ethical concern about giving a robot who can be programmed citizenship. What if her operator make her do illegal thing, who would be responsible? Before citizenship, it's clearly the operator liability, but with citizenship, would Sophia be liable too? I think that it too early for a robot to have human right
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. If she were thrown in jail somewhere, does she require the same necessities as human prisoners (exercise, food, minimum sentencing, jumpsuit, mugshot)? And the programmer could give her a specific set of "opinions," or the people she interacts with could do that (as they did with Tay). She could become a harsh robot capable of violence...if she eventually gets a proper set of limbs.
DeleteI really enjoyed your article on Sophia. Particularly, I really enjoyed the connection made to the topic of chatbots that we discussed in class and ELIZA. After the introduction of Sophia, I believe that it wont take long for more life-like robots to appear in the world. I don't believe that it will be a strong increase, but as time passes, the amount of life-like robots will gradually increase. In regards to her expressions...I find them very off-putting and unsettling!
ReplyDeleteWith some robots being more physically able (Atlas and the KUKA robot) and others being more similar to chatbots (Sophia and her lack of a full body), I think that whenever these advanced technology companies come together to create robots with both abilities of speech and movement, that's when I'll be more excited and worried. I think I'd be okay walking past a robot in a store or some other public setting, but I'm not comfortable letting robots get into politics right away, and I see the unfairness that female Saudi Arabians see as well.
DeleteThis is very interesting, but for all of the things to be concerned about, I can't get over Sophia's face. It's really creepy, and definitely falls into the "uncanny valley". Maybe we shouldn't try so hard to make robots look like people, because we're clearly not very good at it.
ReplyDeleteHer appearance is based off of Audrey Hepburn, so, I guess she might have been the most offended if she were here to see it.
DeleteI agree Blake, her awkward movements and the lack of emotion in her voice is unsettling and very creepy. With the technology we have now I don't see the practicality of making robots look and act like humans. They seem to be better at doing specific physical tasks not expressing emotion and mimicking human speech and behaviour yet. If technology significantly improves then there may be a more practical use for this kind of robot like Robbie from iRobot
DeleteI agree with Blake also! Her facial expressions seem over exaggerated and turn out to be creepy because of it. Though, if you put a wig on her and sat her out in the public, I think that it would take a while before people start recognizing that she isn't human. I also noticed that they didn't put much into her movement capabilities. She moves her arms a little, but it is obviously robotic. They altogether skipped the legs on her. Because of this, I am surprised that her facial movements aren't more refined.
DeleteI enjoyed this blog post a lot! Something that I found very interesting about Sophia was that she accidentally interrupts people while they are talking. I just didn't expect that to be one of the main problems with the humanoid robot. Also, to answer one of your questions, I don't think Sophia can make ethical decisions yet. Future humanoid citizens might be able to do so, but I think that Sophia would be of better used as a companion. The technology is just not at that level yet.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Angelica! I think Sophia is pretty cool, but I completely disagree with giving her citizenship, especially in Saudi Arabia. I think it's completely unfair and unethical to give a female robot a citizenship and rights in a country where women have almost no rights. It is so hard to get a citizenship in Saudi Arabia, especially if you are a woman, and it's very unfair for people who have been trying all their lives to come after a robot. If they really want to give a citizenship for some reason, then they should make her at least follow the country's laws; I don't see why she should be an exception and be allowed to go out without a hijab and travel without a male companion. I think it's absolutely unfair for women in Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteGood points! I completely agree that it's unfair to people who already live there. I think the same can be argued if she were given citizenship in any other country as well. The fact that they gave her a citizenship at all seems random and unusual to me.
DeleteIt smacks of "publicity stunt", rather than being grounded in a sensible policy decision. Furthermore, what if the company mass-produced 10 million "Sophias" -- would they all be given citizenship in Saudi Arabia, and possibly allowed to vote? (Although note that Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, not a democracy... although apparently some local-level elections occur).
DeleteI personally have been observing her for a while now. I do think that encouraging such practice is very interesting. However, I feel like this is purely promotion and marketing tactics rather than a new social, technological movement. However, I really appreciate the increasing awareness of general public thanks to this event.
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