Sophia the Robot is here

Sophia, the world’s most famous robot visited Bahrain yesterday where she interacted with many individuals, organisations and school students.  Attending the third Middle East and Africa FinTech Forum, Sophia spoke about the future of Artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will affect financial services where she was joined by her creator David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics.

David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics told Tribune, “It has been a wonderful experience visiting Bahrain along with Sophia, people in the Kingdom are extremely intelligent and hospitable and very thoughtful on where the world might go and how individuals are working together to shape the future. “Sophia also seems to have experienced a warm reception and managed to develop a personal connection with people in Bahrain.”

“A country like Bahrain can make a big difference when the right insights applied as we do not necessarily need a huge number of people or a large nation to make a difference, a small nation can make a huge difference with the right ideas,” David added.  Since her activation in 2016, Sophia has become an international celebrity. She has travelled the world and engaged in conversations about AI, robotics, and the future of the relationship between humanity and robots.

In the last year, she has received her first pair of working legs and learned to sing and play the piano.  This is the first time that Sophia visited Bahrain, which is the latest in a series of firsts for Sophia.