Sophia – the social robot visits Hungary

Sophia is the first android in the world to get citizenship. She just visited Hungary and had a lively conversation at the Brain Bar festival, borsonline.hu reports.

Just as we reported last year, Sophia was a special guest of the festival that was held at the Corvinus University of Budapest.

Thanks to the rapid innovations in this area, we will have intelligent and independent robots helping us in our everyday life, at home and our jobs. This is not the script of a new sci-fi movie, it could happen in just a few decades. Even the European Union has the initiative to do research in, make use of, and draft legal regulations about artificial intelligence.

Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed in Hong Kong by Hanson Robotics. In 2016 she became a Saudi Arabian citizen, the first robot ever to receive citizenship.

Sophia has been interviewed many times before, in the same manner as a human would, striking up witty conversations with hosts. This time she made an appearance at the Corvinus University, in Budapest, meeting hundreds of interested people and impressing them with her responses.

The robot uses WiFi, and she was first activated in 2015 and made her first public appearance in 2016. She has an extensive vocabulary, can recognise faces and is able to display more than 50 facial expressions.

She has memories, a sense of humour and some strong opinions