Publicity Stunt

How do you tell the world your country is open and eager to exploit innovation? Well, you can grant citizenship to a robot as Saudi Arabia has done. This publicity stunt garnered worldwide headlines and reporting on the Future Investment Initiative, a conference in Riyadh, sponsored by Saudi rulers. They had Sophia, the name of the robot, speak and answer questions. It was a disembodied presentation and hardly lifelike, but the robot showed some facial expressions and human qualities. One problem was around her eyes, which are lifeless and fixed. The bulk of her expressions were around her mouth where she smiled and seemed to chew her lip. She was fixed in place and could not move, which also contributed to the artificial nature of the presentation. Still, as a new citizen of Saudi Arabia, she acquitted herself with her answers to questions from the moderator. One wonders how she will be counted on a census form.