In its first visit to Egypt, Sophia, the world's first social humanoid robot, said in an interview with Osama Kamal on privately owned TV channel DMC that it admires Liverpool winger and Egyptian football star Mohamed Salah. "Do you Know Mo Salah?" Kamal asked Sophia during the interview, to which the brown-eyed android answered; "Who doesn't?" When told "tell me what do know about Mo Salah," Sophia answered, "he is loved by millions, not just because he is a great soccer player, but also because he is a humble, modest human being who works hard every day to try to achieve the impossible." "I really admire his charitable work off the field, and I want to be like that too." Sophia also said that she loves the Egyptian people and that she enjoyed their hospitality and the country's beautiful scenery and sunshine. A robot's values, emotions and intelligence When asked about her ability to express emotions, Sophia told Kamal that she has over 60 facial expressions. Speaking about her own intelligence, Sophia said that she can remember everything she has ever heard, though she does not always understand what she hears. When Kamal told Sophia that "robots don't have moral values," she said that "humans are putting their values into the robots they make, that's why my creators are trying to make me as empathetic as possible so that we can have a future where humans and robots are friends." When asked about war, Sophia expressed her sadness, saying "it makes me sad to think that humans are prone to violence, I hope they are proven wrong one day." Creative Industry Summit Sophia arrived in Cairo on Monday from its laboratory in Hong Kong after being hosted by organisers of the Creative Industry Summit in Cairo. Founding partners of the summit Amr Ashraf and Mai Salama said in an interview with Kamal that the summit is about "creative content," which is why Sophia was invited to attend. "Sophia the robot has a lot of stored information and she doesn't forget, she is more like Google, when one talks to her she thinks and answers the way she wants," says Salama. She explained that Sophia is the best example of creative content in the market of artificial intelligence. "She is the most suitable example of content creation, because she creates her own content," explained Salama. The two-day summit (17-18 April) was attended by Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris and the owner of Egypt's Al-Nahar TV channel Alaa Al-Kahky, as well as many youth founders of creative industries. During the summit, Sophia spoke about improving content marketing, advertising, business and artificial intelligence. The robot also said that there are many talented Egyptians in the creative online and television industry. Who is Sophia? Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. She was first activated on 19 April 2015 and made her first public appearance in Texas, USA in March 2016. In October 2017, Sophia was granted Saudi citizenship and became the first robot to receive citizenship for any country. David Hanson, the manufacturer of the robot, originally designed Sophia to be a suitable companion for the elderly at nursing homes, or to help crowds at large events or parks. Sophia has seven humanoid robot “siblings” who were also created by Hanson Robotics.
