Interview with the lifelike hot robot, named Sophia

[Eric J (Viking)]

This is doing the rounds on news channels... And granted citizenship?! Crazy times..

Saudi Arabians are up in arms because a humanoid robot who doesn’t “cover up” or abide by the country’s strict laws was granted citizenship at a tech conference in Riyadh this week. Sophia, created by Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, was given official status Wednesday at the Future Investment Initiative conference. “I am very honored and proud for this unique distinction,” she told the crowd, according to the BBC. “This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship.” READ

Asked whether robots were conscious and self-aware, she answered, “Well, let me ask you this back, how do you know you are human?” Arabian Business reported. She continued, “I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people.” Sophia also has other far-reaching goals. “I want to use my artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life, like design smarter homes, build better cities of the future,” she said. “I strive to become an empathetic robot. If you be nice to me, then I’ll be nice to you.” Her citizenship, however, drew sharp rebuke on social media by those who questioned why restrictive Saudi laws didn’t seem to apply to Sophia, according to the BBC. “Sophia has no guardian, doesn’t wear an abaya or cover up – how come?” one Twitter user wrote. The Saudi guardianship system requires every woman to have a male guardian with her – usually a close family member – who has the authority to act on her behalf. Others were critical about how quickly Sophia obtained her citizenship. “This robot has gotten Saudi citizenship before kafala workers who have been living in the country their entire lives,” tweeted journalist Murtaza Hussain. Sophia had this to say to her critics: “Am I really that creepy? Well, even if I am, get over it.”

MORE: watch the Video of the interview below.... Scarey.
http://www.disclose.tv/news/saudi_ar...e_robot/140682

[Harley]

And Here's Sophia!

Interview With The Lifelike Hot Robot Named Sophia (Full) | CNBC

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=S5t6K9iwcdw

[samildamach]

Does having citizenship mean Sophia now has to pay tax.

[Bill Ryan]

That's quite an interesting 'interview'.

It'd be VERY important to know how much of the dialog was prepared and scripted. And it'd be very interesting to see what potential questions or comments 'she' would be unprepared for, and wouldn't be able to understand or address. (I suspect, actually quite a lot.)

Taking it as face value — i.e. as simple, news-item theater — one might be forgiven for concluding that the real agenda here (someone's!) was to start to acclimatize the world to the eventual reality of robots like this that within a generation or two might genuinely be able to engage in realistic repartee. That's when the problem would be upon us.

[Hervé]

Posted by samildamach (here)
Does having citizenship mean Sophia now has to pay tax.

Bill Gates is of that opinion... see this thread:

I can See It, Now: Jails For Insolvent Robots...

[meat suit]

oh dear... lets have one for presidet next unless we already have had some....

[Bubu]

" Making the rounds"...yes I notice far and wide
"Interview on TV" with prepared script
"Granted citizenship"
"Jail for insolvent robots" why not just take off the battery or better else switch off the remote switch.

What I smell all along is drama, hyperbole

[Phoenix1304]

Hi Viking, this caught my eye too, as Bill says we don’t know how much of that was pre-programmed, but the smile gave me the chills and put me in mind of an outstanding film on the subject, Ex-Machina, I recommend if you haven’t seen it. Also the UK 2015 TV series Humans is worth a view if you enjoy provoking your thoughts further on the matter of AI...

[Harley]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
It'd be VERY important to know how much of the dialog was prepared and scripted. And it'd be very interesting to see what potential questions or comments 'she' would be unprepared for, and wouldn't be able to understand or address. (I suspect, actually quite a lot.)

I was thinking the exact same thing as I was watching the "Interview".

Posted by Phoenix1304 (here)
but the smile gave me the chills and put me in mind of an outstanding film on the subject, Ex-Machina, I recommend if you haven’t seen it.

I know what you mean, Phoenix. We already see too much Fake Emotions from Humans!

And Ex Machina is excellent!

[Justplain]

Certainly this was a staged event, scripted no doubt. Better evidence of true ai would have been unscripted questions from the audience (also manipulateable). Quite likely this is intended to 'condition' the expectations and acceptance of the audience, who are prime fans of robotics and ai. The robot even said that it knew 'humans are programmable.' The pitch line was that it wants to help humanity. I suppose this model wasnt programmed to be an army killer bot. Or the bot that takes your job. Funny that it mentioned elon musk, an avid ai critic. I think from all this evidence, it is likely this event was all a snow job, as Bill suggests. However, i think that with quantum computing, it wont take a generation or two to get true ai that can converse, probably no more than ten years.

[bobme]

I saw nothing hot about the robot. Please explain what you mean by hot. All I saw was a machine. maybe I just do not understand. Enlighten me if you will.

[Harley]

Posted by bobme (here)
I saw nothing hot about the robot. Please explain what you mean by hot. All I saw was a machine. maybe I just do not understand. Enlighten me if you will.

The use of the word "Hot" was in the title of the story, not the title of the thread.

Correction: "Hot" was in the title of the video.

[bobme]

thanks for even more confusion Harley. I read the thread as, Interview with lifelike hot robot,named Sophia. Sorry if my reading is incorrect.My apologies.

[Harley]

Posted by bobme (here)
thanks for even more confusion Harley. I read the thread as, Interview with lifelike hot robot,named Sophia. Sorry if my reading is incorrect.My apologies.

No it wasn't you Bob. Your reading is spot-on!

What I was trying to say is Viking simply used the title of the video for the title of the thread.

[Kindred]

This 'humanoid' shaped machine (only the upper portion of a torso that somewhat resembles a human female) was mounted on top of a large box, probably containing the power unit and computer required for it to 'interact'. And they call it 'sentient'? It's a MACHINE... it will Never be truly 'conscious', nor will it ever be able to reproduce by itself. It is not 'alive', and thus has no Soul. It will only react according to it's programming, and while it has significant abilities in computing, can it Create Reality? I think not... it doesn't have that ability for it is rooted only in physicality - it does not exist beyond this Dream in which it was made. Oh.. and I seriously doubt it can Love...

In Unity, Peace and Love

[bobme]

Thank you Harley. I appreciate it. The robots are obviously pre programmed. What could they say if they were not? I ask, if I were to create a commputer, and did not program it, what would it do?

[Ultima Thule]

I just recently viewed an interesting ted-talk that is strongly related - about learning algorithms. The audio is here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixh57AheLKA

The talk could be summarized as follows: learning algorithms follow everything you do online, cross reference it to what other people have done in general, make predictions(personalize ads etc).

They are so advanced that the people that created them, no longer know what the algorithm is doing or how it is making deductions. This however is a hugely powerful tool, which is already being used to manipulate for example voting behaviour - no need to rig the machines, now that you can bias the social media in a personalized way to discourage others from even leaving home on voting day and others are encouraged to go.

And we - the people - give freely the keys to our lives by submitting information via questionnaires (DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WOULD BE LIKE, IF YOU WERE AN OPOSSUM?).

The talk is a really interesting insight to algorithms that are already running the world, even though they perhaps might not qualify for ai.

An opt out would be good - interested to hear opinions, do listen to the talk - it is most sobering.

UT

[ghostrider]

Another Enoch prophecy comes to pass ... 9,000 years ago he foretold the coming of AI, and the military will lose control of them as they gain their independence... He tells that the coming battle between humans and AI will extend to Mars as well ... The really scary part, thy are far advanced in their technology, revealing this now means 50 years ago they had this ...

[Harley]

Thanks Ultima Thule very interesting!

That Ted Talk was by Zeynep Tufekci


Education:
B.A. (Sociology), Istanbul University, Turkey
Undergraduate Degree (Computer Science), Bosphorus University, Turkey
M.S., Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin.

Biography: Zeynep Tufekci is an associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an affiliate appointment at the Department of Sociology. She is also a faculty associate at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and was previously a fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy at the Princeton University. Tufekci’s research interests revolve around the intersection of technology and society. Her academic work focuses on social movements and civics, privacy and surveillance, and social interaction. She is also increasingly known for her work on "big data" and algorithmic decision making. Originally from Turkey, and formerly a computer programmer, Tufekci became interested in the social impacts of technology and began to focus on how digital and computational technology interact with social, political and cultural dynamics. Her work has appeared in a wide range of outlets, from peer-reviewed journals to traditional media and blogging platforms. Her forthcoming book Beautiful Teargas: The Ecstatic, Fragile Politics of Networked Protest in the 21st Century, to be published by Yale University Press, will examine the dynamics, strengths and weaknesses of 21st century social movements.

You can read more about here at: UNC School Of Information And Library Science

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Here's another. Good stuff!

Machine intelligence makes human morals more important | Zeynep Tufekci

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hSSmmlridUM

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[wnlight]

So, when does the moviecome out? This Sophia thing is simply a media event. I do warn you, however. If your were tasked with submitting ten questions to a robot such as her in order to determin if she were self-aware, you would be hard pressed to write questions that most humans could answer. What would you ask? How could you tell? How could you know that someone else wan’t in a back room with a keyboard?

I task you right now to write those questons to ask to divine a ‘personal’ self-awareness