Humanoid Robot Sophia - Almost Human Or PR Stunt

by now you probably know who Sofia the robot is she's made her way across late-night stages graced the cover of magazines headlined major tech conferences and even delivered a speech to the UN I am thrilled and honored to be here at the United Nations she's been touted as the future of AI but is it all just smoke and mirrors when we interviewed Sofia back in December we were given a script to stick to here's the list of questions we sent over and here's the list of approved questions we were able to ask they look nothing alike and we're not the only ones who were given a script to read from others who spoken to her have also pointed out that their questions were predetermined vacation that's been courts Allah he's David Hansen's longtime friend and now he's handsome robotics chief scientist Sophia uses machine learning natural language processing and animated robotics to interact with people and while that's no small feat it's far from being alive which is exactly what Sophia's creator told Jimmy Fallon back in April 2017 Sophia's basically alive in the whole context of the conversation that's exactly what he meant like he's a sculptor you started making a sculpture it's like a rock it sits there right then you make your sculpture smile you make your sculpture top you make your sculpt or even reason and answer questions as a sculptor you're gonna feel like your sculpture year by year is becoming to understand Sophia you need to understand David Hansen he's the founder and CEO of handsome robotics and he calls himself a modern day renaissance man his research compares work in robotics to that of Michelangelo but he hasn't always been a major figure in the AI world kansan actually got a BFA in film he worked for Walt Disney as an Imagineer where he created sculptures and robotic technologies for theme parks and went on to get his ph.d in aesthetic studies his personal work has been on display in art exhibits across the world back in 2005 he co-wrote a research paper that laid out his vision for the future of robotics and the thesis sounds a lot like what's going on with Sophia the robot right now the eight page report is called appending the uncanny valley it's Hansen's rebuke of the uncanny valley fury that people won't like robots if they look very close to but not exactly like humans in fact the paper says uncanny robots can actually help address the question of what is human and that there's not much to lose by experimenting with humanoid robots we asked Hanson about it he says that at Hanson robotics today they're exploring the uncanny perception effects both scientifically and artistically using robots like Sophia which makes us think Sophia the robot may be more of a social experiment masquerading as a PR stunt fast forward to today Hanson is still showing off his sculpture work but this time he's in front of talk show audiences and tech investors rather than art collectors and families at Disney World it's resulted in millions of views on YouTube massive amounts of funding from outside investors and the hope that you'll pave the way for artificially intelligent beings of the future Hanson is approaching Sophia with the mindset that she is AI and it's infancy with the next stage being artificial general intelligence or AGI something humanity hasn't achieved yet he wants to raise a GI like a good child not like a thing in Chains he says that's the formula for safe super intelligence but in terms of artificial general intelligence Sofia isn't quite there yet a platform for something I mean you can you can run a lot of different software programs on the on that very same robot ben says Sofia has three control systems the first is called timeline editor which runs entirely on pre-written scripts the second is something called a sophisticated chat system the third system is called open bug and it ground Sofia's answers in experience and reasoning this is the system they're hoping to one day grow into artificial general intelligence and it's being used in a project called loving AI which is researching robot led meditation sessions the research project aims to connect humans with an AI agent that can communicate unconditional love some experts think that alluding to her being alive is a misleading way to present Sophia's technological capabilities and some say that it's actually hurting AI development as a whole Facebook's head of a I says Sofia is a bull puppet en Laocoon calls Hansen staff human puppeteers who are deliberately deceiving the general public and the problem with misleading the masses is that it fundamentally confuses what AI can and can't do a lot of people think were much farther along than we actually are thanks in part to Sofia do you want to destroy humans please say no okay I will destroy humans in the grand scheme of things AGI is the goal but nobody is there yet there's a host of players pushing the limits of what robots are capable of from Honda to Boston Dynamics companies all across the world are developing AI coward humanoid machines and right now it's a race to see who will reach AGI first sort of like Silicon Valley's move fast and break things mantra but we saw what happened when Facebook took that approach and some argue there's not enough thought going into the potential consequences of AGI development it's simply not ingrained in the tech education culture to worry too much about the potential negative consequences kathleen richardson studies the ethics of robotics and she's noticed a pattern in the way things are being developed you know there is this fantasy behind creation that is embedded in the practice of engineering and robotics and AI I don't think these people go in to the office or to their labs and think you know I'm carrying out work that's going to be interesting for Humanity I mean I think many of them have a god complex in fact and they they actually see themselves as creators but she's not the only one pushing for responsible foresight in the industry there's a rising wave of Technology ethicists dedicating their work to ensure AI and tech is developed responsibly because ultimately Tech and now robotics reach more than just the labs in startups of Silicon Valley Sofia has become a cultural icon and with that power comes responsibility the team at Hanson robotics said they didn't expect Sophia to take off as much as she did but her physical appearance is another example of what some see as a traditional representation of conventionally attractive submissive by design female robots Kim Jenkins is a lecturer at Parsons School of Design and she spends a lot of time looking at how fashion and beauty interact with culture I think it's sort of a disappointment and missed opportunity that with our advances in technology we have decided to develop this kind of robust robot with many functions and emotions and yet when we shape her she doesn't look too unlike the models we see on the covers of magazines the actresses we see in Hollywood and Sofia's looks haven't gone unnoticed Sofia was modeled after audrey hepburn and she's since been dubbed the hot robot Sophia is at Hanson robotics only attractive female robot back in 2002 David Hanson created a robot head called the kay bot it was modeled after former lab assistant and now ex-girlfriend years later he made a model inspired by his now life Sophia's creator David Hanson has said a lot about Sophia's aesthetic which seems to be a common theme for Hanson after all he does have a PhD in aesthetic studies in his research paper from 2005 he referenced the term aesthetics six times and that makes Sophia's press appearances even more interesting when she's out on the PR circuit Sophia tends to evoke the idea that the future is already here but a sentient robot doesn't exist yet in countries like the US and China are racing to be the first and I think the thought has little to do with the technology and more to do acute nature of developing hundreds that are very clearly female states to certain populations appeal to certain populations certain way Sophia the robot is just one player and the AI game today but David Hanson sees a robot with true AGI on the horizon I think it's a race against time to see whose algorithms becomes smart first so while my Sophia may look like she's straight out of an episode of black mirror she's not as advanced as she may appear and it may be doing more harm than good hey there thanks for checking out CNBC on YouTube be sure to subscribe to stay up to date on all of the day's biggest stories you can also click on any of the videos around me to watch the latest from CNBC thanks for watching

Channel: CNBC

Views: 465,895

Rating: 4.6053648 out of 5

Keywords: CNBC, business news, finance, stock, stock market, news channel, news station, breaking news, us news, world news, cable, cable news, finance news, money, money tips, Robots, Robotics, SXSW, SXSW CNBC, Sophia Robot, Human Robot Interaction, Technology, Tech, Robot Technology, Hot Robot, Sex Robot, ai negative consiquences, sophia the robot, sophia the robot 2018, sophia the robot says she will destroy humankind, sophia the robot singing, robots taking over, robot footage

Id: 7fnCQC7bLs0

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 05 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/FearlessSwan]

"She" is almost a human though not 100% but Sophia will become the mother of AI in the future.

[u/right_aidan]

She is neither human nor machine. Sophia is the key for the 3rd industrial revolution!