Sophia - the world's most female-like robot

, one of the most expressive robots in the world, makes photographer Giulio Di Sturco seem to be talking to real people .

Sophia is a communication robot created by David Hanson, a creative engineer who worked for Disney, according to National Geographic. Taking a model from screenwriter Audrey Hepburn and Hanson's wife, the robot is designed to simulate social behavior, inspired by love and compassion in people.

Since its launch in 2016, Sophia has become a star. The robot who participated in many television interviews, appeared on the cover of Elle magazine, was the first robot appointed by the United Nations to be the Ambassador of Knowledge. During the opening ceremony of a technology seminar, Saudi Arabia even granted citizenship to Sophia.

But for photographer Giulio Di Sturco, only meeting Sophia at press events when the group of engineers who built it advertised SingularityNET artificial intelligence algorithm is not enough. When searching for an icon that could easily imagine future technology, Di Sturco wanted to visit the robot building.

In fact, Di Sturco is the first photographer to set foot in Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, a space filled with robot parts and technicians are connecting them together. The scene was even more bizarre when the technician started taking pictures of their robots.

"At first, the work was a bit difficult. Sophia did not recognize the camera. However, after three days, it seemed to have been learned , " Di Sturco said. "I don't know if an engineer has added something to the software, or whether it went online and researched, but it started posing. It was really strange. Sometimes, I recognized the version. I'm even talking to him, I have to step back and realize it like a robot, not a human. "

Sophia may be referring to the cognitive robots in Ex Machina or Westworld, but no robots have reached synthetic Artificial Intelligence (AGI) . When talking to reporters, Sophia uses written feedback lines as a chatty robot. When speaking, it performed rigidly like a robot in the Presidential Hall of Disney World.

For Sophia's widespread coverage, AI researchers criticized the media for extolling the robot's capabilities."This is AI juggling," said Yann LeCun, a leading AI scientist at Facebook, commenting on Tech Insider's interview with the robot.

In response, Sophia's engineering team believes that its expression alone represents great achievement. The deep neuron network allows the robot to distinguish one's emotions from intonation and to touch the person's face in response.

Sophia can also imitate everyone's posture, and create proper facial movements. Hanson had patented the skin covering Sophia's face.

A student at Hong Long University joined the meditation session with Sophia.(Photo: Giulio Di Sturco).

"I will not call any of these features AGI, but it is not easy to do so," said researcher AI Ben Goertzel, Sophia's brain designer, in an interview with The Verge. . 'It is extremely superior in terms of cognitive integration, action and conversation.'

For Di Sturco, it all constitutes an attractive photographic subject: a machine that can look extremely like humans but at the same time completely lifeless."It started to look at me and smile, and I looked back at it. At that moment, for me it was not human but there was something like connection."