Sophia, the world’s first robot citizen, is all set to visit the city for the first time.
The social humanoid robot, who was granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia on October 25, will take part in a 45-minute question-answer session in front of 2,500 people at the convention centre of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay at 2.30 p.m. on December 30. The event is being held as a part of the institute’s annual Tech Fest, which begins on December 29.
The institute has been in touch with Hanson Robotics Limited, the Hong Kong-based company that developed Sophia and activated it on April 19, 2015. Sophia will fly down to Mumbai on December 28 and will be accompanied by a technician of Hanson Robotics Limited.
Anirudh Poddar, manager (media and marketing), Techfest, IIT Bombay, said: “On January 5, 2014, we decided to invite BINA48 [Breakthrough Intelligence Via Neutral Architecture 48] the most advanced humanoid at that time for the fest. This time also we considered Artificial Intelligence as the most important area of technology and invited the world’s most advanced humanoid robot.”
Four days ago, the Techfest team initiated a hashtag campaign #AskSophia on Twitter and Facebook and has been receiving an overwhelming response. Divyanshu Prasad, exhibitions manager, Techfest, said: “The number of questions is yet to be finalised. Since we have just 45 minutes with Sophia, questions will be asked till the time is up.”
