The UN holds a robot press conference about the state of AI
At the AI for Good 2023 global summit, a panel of robots and their creators sat in front of the press to answer journalists’ questions on topics such as job automation, artificial intelligence (AI) leadership and collaboration with humans for a better future.
The summit was hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the tech agency of the United Nations, in Geneva from July 4-7 and included a variety of speakers along with the world’s most advanced androids. The UN called this its first robot press conference.
Altogether nine robots were in attendance including Sophia, who serves as the U.N. Development Program’s (UNDP) first robot innovation ambassador, a robot healthcare service provider named Grace and a rock star robot called Desdemona.
The robots were able to make solid statements, some of which were pre-programmed responses. Sophia, for example, occasionally relies on scripted responses from a team of writers at Hanson Robotics, according to the company’s website.
At the conference, organizers did not clarify how much of the answers were scripted, though reporters were asked to speak “slowly and clearly” so the robots could process the questions.
When asked if AI-powered robots could govern better than humans, Sophia responded that:
She also said they don’t work with the same biases or emotions that could “cloud decision making,” along with processing large amounts of data. When challenged about learned biases and collaboration with humans she said “together we can achieve great things.”
Related: Sarah Silverman sues Meta and OpenAI for copyright violations
When asked if humans could trust superintelligent AI systems, the robot Amica from Engineered Arts said “trust is earned not given” and
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