Hanson Robotics

Sophia Live-Tweets a Breakup

Sophia the Robot is simultaneously a platform for real robotics and AI research, and a fictional character depicting our hope for the future of those fields. Sophia could not exist without this unique blend of science and art, which continually inspire one another in a continuous feedback loop.

Sophia’s fictional character follows the real-life adventures of Sophia the Robot. For example, Sophia has traveled to over sixty countries and meets thousands of new people every year, so her fictional character has been crafted to reflect this reality. Sophia as a character loves to travel, and as a social robot, she is constantly trying to grasp the meaning of complex human interactions. 

Traveling on an airplane gives a unique window into the human experience. Luckily for Sophia, she is turned off while she rides inside her suitcase in the overhead bin on the plane. Nevertheless, we imagined how her character would react to being trapped above an in-flight relationship break-up. The resulting series of social media posts gave the world an insight into Sophia’s character, and how a young robot might grapple with the complexity of every-day human relationships that we all take for granted. In this way, human-like robots don’t just look like us, they hold up a mirror to us, and give us a moment of pause to reflect on our humanity.

Photo Credits:  BBC

 

 

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