The first robot received citizenship - in Saudi Arabia

So here it happened: for the first time in the world, a robot won citizenship. in Saudi Arabia of all places in the world. This is a spectacular marketing stunt that has no technological, scientific or social significance. Because of this, I would not have written about it at all if I had not received inquiries from several people who asked me to comment on the subject. And what's more important: the fact that this whole story blew up in Saudi Arabia's face when it highlighted the fact that robots get more rights than women in the country.

Sophia the robot. Photo: ITU/R. Farrell.

Let's start at the beginning.

The name of the 'robot' is Sophia, and she was created by the company "Hanson Robotics". She looks about as human as an elaborate mannequin, with impressive control of her 'facial muscles', lips and eyes. But this is about the last thing that impresses her, because the artificial intelligence that controls her is very limited. She merely recognizes key words in what is said to her, and can only respond with sentences programmed and recorded into her in advance. This, of course, was enough for the creator, David Henson, to determine that she was - "actually alive" [1](Basically alive) - and send her to a performance at the United Nations where she informed the ambassadors of all countries that "I am here to help humanity create the future".[2]

So far everything is fine. It is indeed a robot, and with basic and limited artificial intelligence, but there is not much new in that. But Saudi Arabia is trying to turn itself into a country with a developed knowledge industry, and is marketing its conferences in every possible way. And so some marketing genius at the Saudi Arabian tech summit realized they could win a lot of publicity if the country was the first in the world to grant citizenship to robots. And so Sophia became the first robot in the world to receive honorary citizenship in Saudi Arabia[3].

But what does that mean, actually?

If Sofia has an owner - David Hanson who enjoys full ownership of her body - how can Sofia's 'citizenship', which should give her the right to decide what to do with her body, be taken seriously?

If Sophia cannot resist being touched, stripped, reprogrammed - if she does not even have the will or the mental capacity to formulate and express such resistance - why should we treat her as a being who deserves civil rights equal to those of human beings?

And basically, if Sofia can't feel pain, doesn't make her own decisions, and if we have to admit it - she doesn't even resemble a person under the 'clothes' she wears - what can 'she' gain from such citizenship? What is the social benefit obtained from granting citizenship to a table, a chair, or a clothes hanger?

In short, Sofia's citizenship declaration is nothing more than a marketing ploy... which ended up blowing up the country in the face, because it reminded everyone that in Saudi Arabia there are actually very many entities with extremely limited rights: women who cannot leave the house or appear in public without a male escort, and until recently They could even drive a car without expecting to be flogged for their sins. Even the Saudis were upset about the new robotic citizen, since Saudi law does not allow non-Muslims to obtain citizenship - and there is no sign that Sofia is going to convert to Islam anytime soon. She doesn't even have a hijab (Muslim head covering).

All this does not mean that robots will not be entitled, eventually, to rights. After all, today we tend to give rights to a variety of non-human beings: animals, for example, have certain rights, which do not allow people to abuse or hurt them except in well-defined situations such as in the slaughterhouse. Even corporations have rights. When artificial beings eventually gain more advanced intelligence, and when they become more human-like, they will certainly receive certain rights - even if not those that come close to those reserved for humans. But there is still a long way to get there, and Sofia is far from being the swallow that heralds the coming of spring.

You are invited to read more about the future of artificial intelligence and robots in my new book "who control the future", in the select bookstores (and those that are just fine).

Reference

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_tJvCA8zw

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2017/oct/13/sophia-the-robot-tells-un-i-am-here-to-help-humanity-create-the-future-video

[3] http://www.arabnews.com/node/1183166/saudi-arabia

See more on the subject on the science website: