As crypto and blockchain continue to make headlines, all manner of experts and pundits are scrambling for talk time, from “angel investors” and cryptography gurus to banking traditionalists. But now even the robots want their share of the limelight.
Meet Sophia: the slightly creepy, somewhat humanlike robot that will address the Blockchain Forum at the Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions World Congress in Barcelona on October 4. “She” is listed alongside many other human beings as a speaker.
The programme guide is coy about what Sophia will actually do, but it seems clear that she is expected to engage in discussion with congress participants. The topics are quite formidable as it is: there’s the broad Internet of Things agenda overarching a series of emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Her proud creators, Hanson Robotics, insist that Sophia is not just a simple robot that can only parrot lines fed into her memory, but is an “evolving genius machine” that will continue to learn from her interactions with people. Apparently, Hanson robots are built with “humanness” in mind, with their programming designed to form relationships with people regardless of culture, age and beliefs.
While it does not seem likely that Sophia will introduce groundbreaking concepts in cryptocurrency, she herself is a precursor to a new project called SingularityNET, a blockchain and artifical intelligence integrated cloud infrastructure that has already received significant investments from the Token-as-a-Service (TaaS) cryptocurrency fund.
If Sophia’s appearance brings more value to such conferences, it may prompt calls for more artificial intelligence participation in future events. For now, the crypto community can only hope Sophia doesn’t make good on her threat to wipe out the human race.
