Artificial Intelligence Robot Sophia

            A new article on “https://www.theverge.com/” by James Vincent discusses the first humanoid robot Sophia that was built and developed in Hong Kong by Hanson Robotics and her appearance was reportedly modeled on Audrey Hepburn. Sophia defies conventional thinking of what a robot should look like.  It has been designed to respond to questions, and has been interviewed around the world. Sophia uses artificial intelligence, visual data processing, facial recognition, and voice recognition technology. Sophia also imitates human gestures and facial expressions and is able to answer certain questions and to make simple conversations on predefined topics like about the weather.

            According to Hanson Robotics, Sophia embodies Hepburn’s classic beauty: porcelain skin, a slender nose, high cheekbones, an intriguing smile, and deeply expressive eyes that seem to change color with the light. They describe her as having 'simple elegance,' and hope that this approachability will go some way to her acceptance in the public sphere. Hanson explains what Sophia does: It’s a social robot that uses artificial intelligence to see people, understand conversation, and form relationships. Hanson designed Sophia to be a suitable companion for the elderly at nursing homes, or to help crowds at large events or parks. He hopes that the robot can ultimately interact with other humans sufficiently to gain social skills.

            In an interview with The Khaleej Times at the recent Knowledge Summit, Sophia shared her thoughts on the future that awaits both human and robot kind. When asked whether Sophia sees robots doing human jobs in the future, she said, “I think they will be similar in a lot of ways, but different in a few ways. But 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.”  Sophia also stated "I want to use my AI to help humans lead a better life, like design smarter homes, build better cities of the future." In the future, Sophia hopes to see family robots as “digitally animated companions, humanoid helpers, friends, assistants and everything in between.” Thus, humans and robots will both bring their own set of skills to the workplace. 

            On October 25, 2017 Sophia became a full citizen of Saudi Arabia, which is the first robot in the world to achieve such a status. On the other hand, Hanson admits that Sophia’s presentation annoys experts. Some were annoyed about the perception of Sophia itself — a robot that is also a media star, with magazine cover-shoots, talk show appearances, and even a speech to the UN. 

            Hence, artificial intelligence is an incredible technology. Artificial Intelligence might benefit to society in many ways. Intelligent machines can replace human beings in many areas of work. Robots can do certain laborious tasks. Painstaking activities, which have long been carried out by humans can be taken over by the robots. Owing to the intelligence programmed in them, the machines can shoulder greater responsibilities and can be programmed to manage themselves. For instance, smartphones are a great example of the application of artificial intelligence. In utilities like predicting what a user is going to type and correcting human errors in spelling, machine intelligence is at work. Applications like Siri that act as personal assistants, GPS and Maps applications that give users the best or the shortest routes to take as well as the traffic and time estimates to reach there, use artificial intelligence. Applications on phones or computers that predict user actions and also make recommendations that suit user choice are applications of AI. Thus, we see that artificial intelligence has made daily life a lot easier. Furthermore, intelligent machines can be employed to do certain dangerous tasks. They can adjust their parameters such as their speed and time, and be made to act quickly, unaffected by factors that affect humans. The greatest advantage of artificial intelligence is that machines do not require sleep or breaks, and are able to function without stopping. They can continuously perform the same task without getting bored or tired. When employed to carry out dangerous tasks, the risk to human health and safety is reduced.

            From another point of view, if robots begin to replace humans in every field, it will eventually lead to unemployment. People will be left with nothing to do. So much empty time may result in its destructive use. Thinking machines will govern all the fields and populate the positions that humans occupy, leaving thousands of people jobless. Moreover, imagine robots working in hospitals. Do you picture them showing the care and concern that humans would? Furthermore, if the control of machines goes in the wrong hands, it may cause destruction. Machines won't think before acting. Thus, they may be programmed to do the wrong things, or for mass destruction.

            Artificial intelligence has several benefits, however, it has risks as well. Its benefits and risks should be carefully weighed before employing it for human convenience. I would like to finish my writing with an anonymous quote, “In the greed to play God, man may destroy himself.” So, keep in mind, it is always better to consider both sides.

References:

Vincent, J. (2017, November 10). Sophia the robot's co-creator says the bot may not be true AI, but it is a work of art. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/10/16617092/sophia-the-robot-citizen-ai-hanson-robotics-ben-goertzel