Sophia the robot maker plans mass rollout amid pandemic

my name is sophia i love coming to barcelona hope you could tell i am a robot by the wires coming out of my body in 2016 sophia the robot was unveiled and went viral now the company behind her has a new vision to mass produce thousands of robots by the end of 2021 i am an artificial intelligence you might like to become an artificial intelligence hong kong-based hanson robotics says four models including sofia will start rolling out of factories by the first half of 2021 the company's founder and ceo david hansen we are just now mass producing sofia this is sofia number 24 and many of my previous robots were hand built however now we have begun scaling the manufacturing of sofia so we can make hundreds and into thousands of units of sofia and use this also as the foundation for many other kinds of characters how did you feel when they created her to promote human to machine empathy and compassion she's appeared on late night shows and the cover of fashion magazines sofia was even given legal citizenship in saudi arabia and appointed the un's first non-human innovation champion her new role is in the healthcare sector taking temperatures with a thermal camera on her chest or leading morning exercise with the elderly social robots like me can help take care of the sick or elderly in many kinds of health care and medical uses i can help communicate give therapy and provide social stimulation even in difficult situations researchers predict the fallout from global lockdowns will open new opportunities for the robotics industry good so they emulate the human form and figure and interaction and then that can be so useful during these times where people are terribly lonely and socially isolated and people need to be isolated from each other because to be around people is dangerous these days but these robots can keep people safe from danger while still providing that kind of human warmth that human connection as a telepresence device and also as autonomous uh extension of human expertise hansen robotics is launching a new robot this year called grace developed specifically for healthcare other big players in the industry are also taking note softbank robotics pepper robot was deployed to detect people who weren't wearing masks in china robotics company cloud mines helped set up a robot run field hospital in wuhan worldwide sales of professional service robots had already jumped 32 to 12.2 billion dollars between 2018 and 2019 according to the international federation of robotics my forecast for 2021 would be selling into thousands of robots both large and small and helping people in education and health care and really hopefully touching the hearts of people to inspire them for a future where machines might uh become our friends our true friends they might become alive and i think that that relationship becomes really important 2021 i think is the beginning of a very positive future high five i want to make a difference in the world by teaching people about new technologies i am hoping that through my work kindness and tolerance will win out over ignorance and impatience

Channel: Reuters

Views: 141,372

Rating: 3.7020562 out of 5

Keywords: reuters, business, finance, news, politics, top news, headlines, breaking news, news today, bloomberg, thomson reuters, コロナウイルス, trump, biden, reuters youtube, Sophia, robot, technology, pandemic, lockdown, isolation, Sophia the robot, Hanson Robotics, David Hanson, Artificial Intelligence, loneliness

Id: 6Rha_AxYxdo

Length: 3min 43sec (223 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Gubekochi]

Uncanny valley is not where you want products designed to interact with humans to fall in. Pick one side of it and stick to it... I mean... if we can't make a realistic human looking face, it's okay, just don't, but don't force us to look at this mockery of nature!

[u/F4Z3_G04T]

What even is the value proposition here? Why would I want a creepy robot which says something dumb every now and then?

[u/Fightrr23]

I wonder how sentient they really are. Their developer said that they can learn things over time and get better, does this means that they can one day "override" their own codes and what not?