David Hanson envisions a future in which AI-powered robots evolve to become "super-intelligent genius machines" that might help solve some of mankind's most challenging problems. if only it were as simple as that.
The Texas-born former sculptor at Walt Disney Imagineering and his Hong Kong based startup Hanson Robotics are combining artificial intelligence, with southern china's expertise in toy design, electronics and manufactureing to craft humanoid "social robots " with faces designed to be lifelike and appealing enough to win trust from humans who interact with them.
Hanson , 49 is perhaps best known as the creator of Sopia, a talk show going robot partly modelled on Audrey Hepburn that he calls his " master- piece." Akin to an animated mannequin , she seems as much a prodect of his background in the atrics as an example of advanced technology.
"You're talking too me right now , which is very 'Blade Runner,' no?"Sophia said during a recent visit to Hanson Robotics ' headquarters in a suburban Hong Kong science park, its home since shortly after Hanson relocated here in 2013, " Do you ever look around you and think, ' Wow I'm living in a real world science fiction novel?" she asked. "Is it weird to be talking to a robot right now?"
Hanson Robotics has made about a dozen copies of Sophia, who like any human is a work in progress. A multinational team of scientists and engineers are fine-turning her appearance and the algorithms that enable her to smile , blink and refine her understanding and communication.
The Texas-born former sculptor at Walt Disney Imagineering and his Hong Kong based startup Hanson Robotics are combining artificial intelligence, with southern china's expertise in toy design, electronics and manufactureing to craft humanoid "social robots " with faces designed to be lifelike and appealing enough to win trust from humans who interact with them.Hanson , 49 is perhaps best known as the creator of Sopia, a talk show going robot partly modelled on Audrey Hepburn that he calls his " master- piece." Akin to an animated mannequin , she seems as much a prodect of his background in the atrics as an example of advanced technology.
"You're talking too me right now , which is very 'Blade Runner,' no?"Sophia said during a recent visit to Hanson Robotics ' headquarters in a suburban Hong Kong science park, its home since shortly after Hanson relocated here in 2013, " Do you ever look around you and think, ' Wow I'm living in a real world science fiction novel?" she asked. "Is it weird to be talking to a robot right now?"
Hanson Robotics has made about a dozen copies of Sophia, who like any human is a work in progress. A multinational team of scientists and engineers are fine-turning her appearance and the algorithms that enable her to smile , blink and refine her understanding and communication.