Humanoid Sophia makes real impact on young Ethiopian AI enthusiasts

ADDIS ABABA－Sophia, the famous humanoid robot, on Tuesday met with more than 200,000 young artificial intelligence enthusiasts as part of her visit to Ethiopia's capital.

Sophia, who arrived in Addis Ababa on last Friday, had missed much of her schedule as a bag containing some of her parts went missing at Frankfurt Airport.

On Tuesday, Sophia attended the 2nd International Information Communication Technology Expo Ethiopia 2018, which is under way in Addis Ababa on the theme "Transform Ethiopia".

I-cog Labs, an Ethiopian AI company that had been involved in the development of Sophia's software, facilitated the meeting between the robot and young Ethiopians.

Getnet Aseffa, I-cog Labs CEO, said on Tuesday that Sophia, which has more than 2 billion followers globally, met a huge gathering of enthusiastic fans.

Developed by Hanson Robotics and activated in 2015, Sophia was granted Saudi citizenship in 2017, making her the first robot to receive citizenship of any country. Sophia is also regarded as the "realest" robot to date.

According to Aseffa, his company has been working in partnership with Hanson Robotics for the past four years, during which time they were able to contribute to the development of the brain parts of Sophia.

"One of our contributions is that we built what you see as the emotional activities, expressions and also an engine called cognitive engine," Aseffa said.

"There are parts of Sophia that perceive the environment. For example when Sophia observes a crowd, she would perceive a gathering, a meeting, an event or expo. Such types of decisions are made by her cognitive brain."

According to Aseffa, the fact that Ethiopians have contributed to the making of Sophia could be seen as a major factor that motivates and inspires young Ethiopians in the AI sector.

"They (the children) have started thinking that we are not locked in Ethiopia and we can have a big impact in the world," he said.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who met Sophia at the Ethiopian National Palace on Monday, called on young people to embrace developments in the AI sector, saying the country has thousands of "brilliant minds" that could help integrate with the future of software development and AI sectors.

Xinhua