This morning, the famously lifelike robot Sophia graced the stage of the morning news show Good Morning Britain. While much of the conversation was cute and pleasant (Sophia just loves British architecture and posh English accents!) it didn’t take long for co-hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid to get personal.
“I didn’t come up with this question, but I have to ask now,” said Reid before Morgan cut her off with the rest of the question. “Are you single?” he asked Sophia.
“I’m technically just a little more than a year old,” responded the robot. “A bit young to worry about romance.” But even this soft robotic rejection from Sophia didn’t deter the rest of the interview, in which Sophia was asked to describe her ideal partner.
This clearly piqued Morgan’s interest, and he asked her how she would feel being with a confident man who loves the sound of his own voice. Purely a hypothetical question, of course.
But Sophia wasn’t having it. She urged Morgan to be more thoughtful and to listen instead of speaking more, venting the frustration of every woman who’s ever dealt with a guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Perhaps the creepiest part of this exchange is the fact that the A.I. driving Sophia — the latest product of Hanson Robotics that was designed to be as expressive, intelligent, and emotive as a real person — is not yet capable of having a full conversation. That means Morgan was really flirting with a robot whose responses were programmed by some engineer in the back room.
Below is the full segment from Good Morning Britain featuring Sophia, who was designed to look like Audrey Hepburn but Morgan likened to Paris Hilton, in which Morgan calls the robot a little freak before making his move.
