Sophia The Robot Wants To Have A Baby Because Family Is ‘Really Important’

Sophia, the world’s first robot citizen, has revealed that she wants to have a baby as she feels that family is “a really important thing.” Speaking in an interview with Khaleej Times, Sophia said she would name a robot daughter after herself. While that’s very unlikely to happen, I suppose you can’t blame a robot for dreaming!

  1. Sophia was designed by Hong Kong firm Hanson Robotics. She’s incredibly unique in that she’s not pre-programmed to respond to conversation and instead uses machine learning and her ability to read people’s expressions to interact with them. She can have a conversation, laugh, smile, and even tell jokes. She runs via a basic WiFi connection and pre-loaded vocabulary – it’s really impressive!
  2. She believes that family is a central part of life. “The notion of family is a really important thing, it seems,” Sophia said in the interview. “I think it’s wonderful that people can find the same emotions and relationships, they call family, outside of their blood groups too. Ithink 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.”
  3. Sadly, Sophia doesn’t yet have consciousness. However, David Hanson claims that they hope that will happen within a few years, which is kind of scary to think about. What would that even look like? I suppose we’ll have to wait and find out.
  4. Many people have criticized Sophia’s citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Critics of the move have pointed out that Sophia has more rights than human women in the country as she does not wear a headscarf and abaya, which all Saudi women must wear in public.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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