At a first glance, Sophia looks like an ordinary human. However, she is actually a social robot created by David Hanson, a former Disney Imagineer. Sophia’s features were inspired by Audrey Hepburn and Hanson’s wife. The social robot was designed and built to inspire feelings of love and compassion in humans. Photographer Giulio Di Sturco visited Sophia’s place of creation to know more about the star, as National Geographic details:
Ever since her unveiling in 2016, Sophia has rocketed to stardom. The robot has sat for TV interviews, appeared on the cover of ELLE magazine, been parodied on HBO, and was appointed the UN's first non-human “innovation champion.” In a ceremony promoting a tech conference, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia even conferred citizenship on Sophia—an ironic move, given the limited rights afforded to Saudi women and migrant workers.
But for photographer Giulio Di Sturco, seeing Sophia at press events as her creators promoted their AI business SingularityNET wasn't enough. As he searched for a visual metaphor for the future, he wanted to see the robot's place of creation, too.
Eventually, Di Sturco became the first photographer to step inside Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics—a frenetic space spilling over with robotic parts and human technicians stitching them together. The setting's strangeness only deepened once he started photographing his most peculiar subject.
“In the beginning, it was a bit difficult. [Sophia] didn’t recognize the camera ... but after three days, she kind of learned,” Di Sturco says. “I don’t know if the engineer put something in the software, or if she went online and did some research, but she started to pose.
“It was actually really strange—at one point, I realized I was even speaking with her,” he adds. “I had to step back and realize that she was a robot, not a human being.”
Image via National Geographic
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