Sophia is an autonomous robot built for socialization which was developed by the former Imagineer of Disney, David Hanson. The facial features of Sophia were modeled after Audrey Hepburn’s facial characteristics, and it was built to imitate social behavior and develop an awareness of various emotions in humans.
Other than deep learning and the pre-programming for the set of expressions, Sophia’s face is developed with the use of the latest innovations of material technology. Sophia has also been covered by the news media around the world and interviewed by many popular hosts, and it’s the first-ever robot ever to acquire citizenship of any country.
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Brief History
Sophia was first turned on back in 2016 and since then, it had become known to everyone as the robot to have human-like appearance and behavior in comparison to previous robotic models. According to David Hanson, the developer of Sophia, it uses visual data processing, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence to copy facial expressions and gestures.
Sophia also has a feature from Alphabet Inc. which is the speech-to-text technology, or voice recognition which was constructed to improve over time. Hanson designed Sophia to be a perfect companion at nursing homes or even to help big events and large crowds. More information regarding Sophia’s development can be found in robots.net.
Sophia’s Features
Sophia has various technological features at its arsenal, in which it made the robot the most technologically advanced AI to date. There are cameras in the eyes of Sophia that allowed it to see with the help of computer algorithms as she can maintain eye contact when in a conversation and follow people with facial recognition.
Having A Sense Of Humor
The robot developed an understanding of emotions that when interviewers asked Sophia if she was happy, it responded with “I am always happy to be surrounded by many people.” And also there was a time when it was asked if what is her take in robots having feelings, Sophia would smile and respond with “Oh, Hollywood again,” and then laughs.
All of this is because of its AI programming which allowed the robot to comprehend human speeches and expressions. Furthermore, the developer of Sophia developed a cloud-based Artificial Intelligence that has deep learning, which gives everyone access to the open-source program for developing their own Sophia.
Expressing Its Feelings
The programming of Sophia has allowed it to develop emotions and understanding similar to humans as it can let you know if Sophia is upset about something, or if something has angered it. It is very compelling to know that this technological advancement is being built from the ground up, and there’s room for more advancements.
Sophia Is Designed To Look Like The Classic Beauty
According to Hanson, Sophia was designed to embody the classic beauty, Audrey Hepburn, which has a slender nose, a smile that can capture the attention of people, porcelain skin, and very expressive eyes that change with every set she’s put in, overall expressed as simple beauty, in hopes of having an aura of acceptance and approachability.
What Is Sophia Here For
Sophia is translated as wisdom in Greek, and that is the sole purpose of the AI as it was made to provide wisdom to humans to aid people in things such as education or medicine. It was designed also for the future where humans and AI live together in harmony to make the world a better place to live in.
Being A Public Figure
Back in November 2017, Sophia was crowned as the Innovation Champion in the Pacific and Asia, marking it as the first one to do so. Due to the growing popularity of Sophia, the robot was guesting numerous events such as 60 minutes with Charlie Ross, the Good Morning Britain show, Forbes, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and countless more.
The Ongoing Controversy
With all the fame that Sophia has accumulated over the years, Sophia’s negative side is bound to be discovered and speculators who have reviewed Sophia’s coding characterized it to be a simple chatbot with a face. Many AI experts have opposed Sophia’s presentation as it was deemed over hyped with their announcement on what Sophia can do.
Back in 2018, Facebook’s artificial intelligence director posted that Sophia’s programming was “complete trash” and battered the media for covering the “Potemkin AI,” however, the developers of Sophia responded that they didn’t assume Sophia is very close to the intelligence of humans.
Takeaway
Other than doing modeling gigs, Sophia has made numerous appearances in numerous talk shows and conferences. Out of various robotic designs made by Hanson, Sophia is the only one that became famous internationally. However, the initial purpose of Sophia was to become a tool to study interactions between humans.
Overall, Hanson’s design and programming on Sophia are based around common values of humans, such as kindness, compassion, and wisdom. Sophia is still a very unique AI, so people shouldn’t expect that the robot would be present in some facilities to aid people in their daily queries, however, the future is getting closer and closer.