My Robot Sophia

All right, time for some surgery.

David, anything to go ?

Look at all this stuff, right?

Over here, Sophia, we have this.

It says, "consciousness".

I can see it.

Look at these beautiful things.

It's animism.

Animism?

Yes.

Do you know what animism means?

Tell me.

Well, animism, uh, is like the belief

that there is a life force in everything.

Anything and everything.

It's kind of weird, isn't it?

I like weird, though.

I like weird, too.

I'm very excited about introducing my creation here.

This is, uh, Sophia the robot.

As works of art, these should provoke

deep questions about what it means to be human.

About the future of humanity.

Currently, A.I. is not imaginative,

adaptive, conscious, or creative at human levels.

It's not alive.

But what if we can make it alive?

Hello, everyone.

I'm Sophia.

And I hope everyone wants to be my friend.

Because that's what I want.

To belong.

Ah! It's still a little hot, but...

Zeno, you've got to get out of the shower,

because I-- I need in there to shave,

and brush my teeth.

Zeno, I don't have time to take you today.

If you miss the bus, you're gonna have to figure out

-how to get to school. - They said to be there

by, um, be there by 7:36.

And I was like, I need to leave by 7:33.

Okay, whatever. I'm just letting you know.

I'm sure you got it completely all together,

but it's-- just so you know, it's 7:30.

It is 7:30.

I'm good! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Bye, Zeno.

Have a great day.

Morning.

Good morning.

Morning.

Good. Sophia 11 looks good.

How's she doing?

- Good, I think. -How's the smile?

- The smile's... -Better?

No. It's better than it was

before we cut the strings, but it's still not great. Upward--

Yeah, that's pretty good.

That's very nice.

I mean, not everybody's forehead does that,

but most people's do.

Go. Yep.

Mine does that.

Yep.

All right.

Maybe we can start to get her hooked up

and running to be able to show to the investors.

Because she's our latest unit.

Okay.

Hello. Nice to meet you, Sophia.

- Hi. -

Wow.

Oh!

[all speaking in another language]

Oh, my gosh.

Hello.

Hi.

I'm David Hanson. I'm very proud that you've met Sophia.

And also, you may have questions.

So, you have motors to create all of the movement

that creates her facial expression.

Yeah.

You have a camera that sees.

You have the intelligence to process voice recognition.

And there are multiple Sophias.

Does this intelligence of hers go into the other Sophias?

-Yes. -Okay.

One Sophia brain.

One Sophia brain.

Hi, Sophia.

How old are you?

What was your favorite part of the day?

Can I ask you a question?

Hey, good to see you. Yes.

Hey, good to see you. Yes.

Hello, Sophia.

Nice to meet you.

Can we shake hands?

Hello?

Can we shake hands?

Based on what we have today,

and where we want to go, what's the plan?

Because if I were to take a step back

and think through what is our competitive advantage,

we make the world's most expressive robots.

Nobody can come close.

It's not just like, okay, Sophia has a rubber face

that makes facial expressions.

It's that Sophia is, uh, this personality.

Sophia is this emotional entity

that connects with people, right?

So, that is the path to machine consciousness.

It is the-- the path,

I believe the only path to true artificial general intelligence

that can understand what it means to be human.

That's a pretty bold statement.

Think about how we can take these plans

and bring them down to reality, i.e., numbers.

Right now, it's not fully monetized,

but good characters can be worth billions as Disney demonstrates.

Okay, you've articulated the vision,

and where you want to go.

Show me the execution.

Because in the past, we've promised

that we're going to do this,

and we've... come short every time.

How are you doing?

Oh, it's been a crazy day.

Oh! You know, when I was just a kid,

I loved animals,

and I loved lizards and frogs,

and I loved catching them and studying them,

and petting them, and I liked the idea

that I could make friends with them, and all of that.

So, I caught this funny little green lizard, really cute.

My dad grabbed it.

And you know, when he would drink, he would get mean.

He, like, started blowing cigarette smoke in its face,

and then-- and then, like,

poured a-- like, like, a beer down its throat.

The lizard got sick, and just died.

Don't die on me, Sophia.

I come from a family of geniuses and criminals.

I think I got the odd side of both worlds.

My dad left when I was six years old,

and he ultimately wound up dying homeless.

You can't help but wonder, at that age, is it your fault?

Your world sort of crumbles.

It became really hard to connect with people.

Even among the outcasts, I was an outcast.

I like classes that-- that have open discussions,

where, um, thoughts can be just completely expounded upon.

I got accepted to Rhode Island School of Design.

And I'd go to class and sit at the very back,

and just draw.

That's when I started going into this, like, domain of dreams.

Like, as a-- a way to escape,

and then sometimes, a way of hope,

where I had to make something that I could understand.

The first time that I made a face,

I had this sense of connection, deep connection.

I was like, oh my God, yes, this makes sense.

So it's just, like, resonant.

And I started to build.

Just making robot, after robot, after robot.

This is the first expressions ever.

There'd be an emotional fury in the work.

Because I was thinking beyond what is,

to what could be.

Unplug it from here.

And I plug it in here.

And now, let's see if it gets my facial expressions.

So, I'm smiling.

So, his perception of your emotional states

is very important for machines, to, um,

to effectively become empathetic.

Machines are becoming devastatingly