Saudi Arabia gives robot citizenship
As part of a publicity stunt to encourage investment, Saudi Arabia has given citizenship to a new robot, designed to show human emotions by facial expressions.
A humanoid robot took the stage at the Future Investment Initiative yesterday and had an amusing exchange with the host to the delight of hundreds of delegates. Smartphones were held aloft as Sophia, a robot designed by Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, gave a presentation that demonstrated her capacity for human expression.
Sophia made global headlines when she was granted Saudi citizenship, making the kingdom the first country in the world to offer its citizenship to a robot.
Below the fold I have embedded the video of Sophia’s conversation with the host. It is obvious that most of the conversation was scripted. It is also obvious that robots still have a long way to go before their facial expressions appear natural to the human eye.
Posted north of Phoenix as we climb up onto the Colorado Plateau. Just saw the last saguaro in the cacti’s northern range limits.
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As part of a publicity stunt to encourage investment, Saudi Arabia has given citizenship to a new robot, designed to show human emotions by facial expressions.
A humanoid robot took the stage at the Future Investment Initiative yesterday and had an amusing exchange with the host to the delight of hundreds of delegates. Smartphones were held aloft as Sophia, a robot designed by Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, gave a presentation that demonstrated her capacity for human expression.
Sophia made global headlines when she was granted Saudi citizenship, making the kingdom the first country in the world to offer its citizenship to a robot.
Below the fold I have embedded the video of Sophia’s conversation with the host. It is obvious that most of the conversation was scripted. It is also obvious that robots still have a long way to go before their facial expressions appear natural to the human eye.
Posted north of Phoenix as we climb up onto the Colorado Plateau. Just saw the last saguaro in the cacti’s northern range limits.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Stereotypical, inbreeding, primitive, scumbags.
I advocate their entire made-up country be rapidly disassembled with the application of nuclear energy.
Wayne,
Better to hit them with truth bombs, however many it takes.
Cheers.
Laurie–
It’s a 3rd world, made-up country, which parasites off 1st world technology. They have never been our friends and never will be. (How many of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi’s? ‘like 90% of them?)
Best to see if we could ignite their oil-fields with sufficient W-88 warhead’s, airburst at 1,800 feet, turn the sand into glass.
Rapidly disassemble, the entire made-up country, with a judicious application of nuclear derived energy.
an-Našīd al-Waṭaniyy
“Saudi national anthem”
https://youtu.be/60S6cbU8Llo
(0:50)
Maybe the sand of the Arabian peninsula can be nuked into an astronomical mirror? If it were ISRU on Mars pr an asteroid it would’ve been the obvious and self-evident thought for most armchair:ers. But here and now when we can and need to do it, there’s little interest.
If arabs were exchanged for Japanese robots, I think that’d be a great improvement.
Will the robot be able to drive?
Judy,
I guess it depends on its gender identification (!)
Tadnees –
“Nuke Mecca”
https://youtu.be/61UcZIamYtE
4:25
They are finally giving women rights! Now Saudis need to just realize woman are not property. Oh, dang it we are talking about robots not human, my bad.
Wayne: I warned LocalFluff that I will not tolerate the advocacy of genocide on BtB. That applies to you as well. And this is what you are advocating. It must stop, or you must explain how your proposal to wipe the Arab world out with nuclear bombs is not genocide, something I doubt you can do.
I highly value your contribution to my website, but this kind of contribution is unacceptable. You have been warned.
I would apologize, for saying it out loud.
Wayne: You are of course welcome to your opinions, but this is one that is a very disturbing one to me personally, because I am Jewish and my personal knowledge of the consequences of such opinions. Be aware that your opinion, if you firmly believe it, includes the murder of many innocent children. You should not take that thought lightly.
I rather think our enemies crossed a line, quite some time ago. (‘like, 40 years ago.)
I will however, contain myself in a public-wise fashion, and I will revisit this in my head.
nicely done edit of
Victor Davis Hanson
“Lessons of War” clip
https://youtu.be/JvPoH6n736k
3:14
Wayne: I had emailed LocalFluff the following when this issue came up with his comments:
So if the robot breaks sharia law are they going to throw it off the roof?
If so, what about the robot’s controller/programmer….
Now that the robot has citizenship, does it need a passport to leave and reenter the country? Does it owe taxes? Can it own property, and must it stop being someone’s property? (Slavery is illegal in Saudi Arabia, right?)