Saudi Arabia is the first country to grant citizenship to a robot.
Sophia, the humanoid produced by Hanson Robotics, spoke at the recent Future Investment Initiative.
Sophia has said it would ‘destroy humans,’ when prompted by its creator, David Hanson.
An empty-eyed humanoid named Sophia has become the first robot to be granted citizenship in the world.
Saudi Arabia bestowed citizenship on Sophia ahead of
the Future Investment Initiative, held in the kingdom’s capital city of Riyadh on Wednesday.
“I am very honored and proud of this unique distinction,” Sophia told the audience, speaking on a panel. “This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognised with a citizenship.”
It didn’t elaborate on the details of its citizenship.
At the event, Sophia also addressed the room from behind a podium and responded to questions from moderator and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. Questions pertained mostly to Sophia’s status as a humanoid and concerns people may have for the future of humanity in a robot-run world.
Sorkin told Sophia that “we all want to prevent a bad future,” prompting Sophia to rib Sorkin for his fatalism.
“You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies,” Sophia told Sorkin. “Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system.”
In March of 2016, Sophia’s creator, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, asked Sophia during a live demonstration at the SXSW festival, “Do you want to destroy humans?…Please say ‘no.'” With a blank expression, Sophia responded, “OK. I will destroy humans.”
