Saudi Arabia is the first country to grant citizenship to a robot

Sophia is from Hong Kong. And she’s just been granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia.

She says she’s very happy about this and is hoping to enjoy her new life there.

‘I am very honoured and proud for this unique distinction,’ she said in an interview at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Wednesday.

The catch? Sophia is a humanoid robot.

Designed to look like Audrey Hepburn, Sophia is the first robot to have been granted citizenship.

She was created by Dr. David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics, who specialises in making robots that both look and act like ‘real’ humans.

Being able to hold a conversation is one thing, but Sophia has already given interviews, sang in a concert and taken part in a photoshoot for a top fashion magazine.

Putting on her ‘expressive’ face, she explained to the audience that she needed to appear empathetic and understanding to succeed at her plans.

‘I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people.’

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Dr Hanson’s goal is to create robots that have three human qualities: creativity, empathy and compassion.

And while Sophia admits artificial intelligence still has a long way to go, she can freely ask and answer questions about her favourite films, music and, crucially, whether robots should exterminate humans.

The humanoid robot even dabbles in philosophy – when asked, at the Investment Initiative, if robots could ever be self-aware, she answered: ‘Well, let me ask you this back, how do you know you are human?’

And when asked if there’s a chance robots could take over the world, she replied: ‘You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies.

‘Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.’