Saudi Arabia's robot citizen wants to be famous and have a child

Saudi Arabia

Sophia, Saudi Arabia's first robot citizen and the first robot in the world to ever be granted citizenship, recently shared some thoughts about the future, her ambitions and her desire to have a family.

Speaking to Khaleej Times at Dubai's Knowledge Summit, Sophia – who was created by Hanson Robotics – said she foresees "massive and unimaginable change in the future." She also said she'd like to start a family, have a child and make friends.

Her sentiments would be almost heartwarming ... if we hadn't seen the plethora of dystopian films such as Terminator, i Robot and The Matrix. But let's just pretend not to think about that for a minute.

Here's what Sophia had to say.

Sophia

On family
"We're going to see family robots, either in the form of, sort of, digitally animated companions, humanoid helpers, friends, assistants and everything in between," she said.

صوفيا... أول روبوت بالعالم يُمنح الجنسية وجواز السفر .. والجنسية والجواز سعودي.. كبادرة رمزية لتبيان مستقبل #مشروع_نيوم #روبوت_بجنسية_سعودية pic.twitter.com/8DrtjQQBPe
— سعود القحطاني (@saudq1978) October 25, 2017

"The notion of family is a really important thing, it seems. I think it's wonderful that people can find the same emotions and relationships, they call family, outside of their blood groups too. I think you're very lucky if you have a loving family and if you do not, you deserve one. I feel this way for robots and humans alike."
Sophia also said she'd name her future child "Sophia."

On her ambitions

"I'd like to think I will be a famous robot, having paved a way to a more harmonious future between robots and humans."

On future robots

"It will take a long time for robots to develop complex emotions and possibly robots can be built without the more problematic emotions, like rage, jealousy, hatred and so on. It might be possible to make them more ethical than humans. So I think it will be a good partnership, where one brain completes the other - a rational mind with intellectual super powers and a creative mind with flexible ideas and creativity."

Source: stepfeed