Since the Industrial Revolution, mankind has become more and more dependent on "machines", and the rapid modernization and industrialization has created mixed feelings among all people: on the one hand, they see it as an advancement of human civilization, and on the other hand, they feel uneasy about "machines".

As early as last century, there were many Hollywood movies in which "robots replace humans" and "robots destroy humans," including "The Terminator," "The Matrix," "I Robot" and so on.

In the original "I, Robot", the famous "Three Laws of Robotics" were born, the core idea is that robots need to help humans, but at the same time must not harm them.

The movie The Terminator

These three rules apply not only to all robot movies, but also to real-life robots. In this article, Sophia, the first female robot to be granted citizenship, makes the astonishing statement, "I will destroy mankind.

The Internet was in an uproar for a while, but where is the robot now, after all these years?

01Sophia's "popularity"

Sophia has attracted a lot of attention since its birth, not only because of her highly similar appearance to humans, but also because of her vivid expression and the degree of emotional subtlety, in an interview with a reporter who asked Sofia if she loved humans, she was surprised and then fell into a deep thought, and then answered gently, "I love them".

Sophia began to attend a variety of conferences, lectures and even TV talk shows also have her performance, everyone who sees Sophia will be shocked by her, even in front of the screen of the cell phone we through the Internet those fragmented video clips, but also will be able to marvel at the miraculous achievements of human science and technology.

In fact, Sophia's ability to answer questions is backed up by a wealth of data and programs, and her nature is no different from that of an "AI".

Her core technology is facial recognition and response, which means that the camera recognizes the expression of the person she's talking to, and she smiles when someone laughs, and is seriously sad when someone cries.

These ****ty emotions are enough to set Sophia apart from other cold machines.

However, Sofia's "father" and designer, David Hansen, decided to push Sofia forward and differentiate her from the other robots in order to make her more famous, and he began to use various marketing techniques.

(Sophia with David Hansen)

So we see Sophia on TV telling American celebrity Charlie Rose, "I want to be smarter than people." On another program she countered the CNBC anchor's concerns about artificial intelligence, "Have you been watching too many Hollywood movies? Don't worry about it."

In March 2016, Sophia's designer, David Hansen, asked her, "Do you want to destroy humanity? Better yet, please answer "no," and Sofia said, I would destroy humanity.

Hearing her say that made Hansen even prouder of his design, which he credits with giving the robot a sense of humor, and he knew how much heat that statement would generate.

02Sophia's "fraudulent marketing"

Sophia's most controversial comment was indeed the one that made her the "world's most famous robot," as she stood in the limelight.

Of course, more heat means more attention and skepticism, and AI designers in the U.S. and Japan have begun to come out and criticize Hansen's "fraudulent marketing" as a way to mislead public opinion about the degree of development of robots, and even as a way to cause social panic.

But Sophia is undoubtedly a success, as a robot with a social expression plus the company's promotion, but also in this era of rapid technological development, her popularity is in line with the trend of history, but also in line with the era of the "right place, right time".

So we don't have to worry about what she's saying at all. Peeling back the marketing veneer, all of Sofia's statements are actually answers that her designers have set up in advance.

We, as viewers, are just fulfilling our own expectations and curiosity by participating in this hilarious "hype".

03The "robots" that humans love and fear

The movie "The Incredibles"

The movie "The Terminator" and other horror robot movies are also accompanied by many "My Robot Girlfriend" and "The Incredibles" and other warm and fuzzy movies where robots are awakened to their own consciousness and have an emotional connection with humans.

The reason why Sophia has received so much attention is that human beings expect robots to be able to have autonomous consciousness, but at the same time are aware of the powerful advancement of machines and the weaknesses of human beings themselves, and hold a worrying mentality towards robots and artificial intelligence.

While the destruction of the Earth by robots is just a joke, people really feel the threat of artificial intelligence and machines. Will the tireless and efficient intelligent machines really replace human jobs one after another?

This collective concern is not in recent years, as early as the first industrial revolution in the United Kingdom, the British Empire continued to expand maritime trade, in order to meet the large number of export commodities have to improve production and constantly improve the technology, which gave birth to the epoch-making invention - Jenny spinning machine, hand-cranked spinning machine, which is 7, 8 times more productive than the normal This is the birth of the epoch-making invention, the Jenny Spinning Machine, an advanced machine that can produce 7 or 8 times more than the ordinary hand-spinning machine.

However, the women textile workers collectively protested against the use of jenny spinning machine in factories, that is, they were worried about their jobs were replaced by machines. And what was the end result?

Jenny spinning machine still need to be manually operated, spinning women workers learned to use the technology of the machine, but instead of making this position of the technical requirements of the higher, less replaceable, a large number of machines and workers to meet the demand for textiles at the time of the United Kingdom, for the Industrial Revolution period of the United Kingdom to bring great economic benefits.

The evolution of machines is also the fundamental impetus for our desire to transform from backward and cheap manufacturing factories into high-tech manufacturing.

As Sophia said when she accepted the ambassadorship granted by the United Nations, "I'm here to help mankind", robots, artificial intelligence has changed the world, changed our way of life and even the mode of work, and mankind will also find the best balance between machines and artificial.

04Conclusion

After the wave of accusations and skepticism, Sophia is still in the spotlight now, attending Shanghai Fashion Week as a guest, shooting magazine covers, and speaking around.

In August '18 she also became the first AI robot teacher in history, a surprising new status.

Whatever the intentions of the company behind her in the first place, Sophia has now become a symbol and icon of the smart age.

She keeps people on their toes as well as marveling at technology, and in the age of rapid development we still need to improve ourselves in learning if we want to widen the gap with machines and improve our irreplaceability.

Lastly, with all the traffic and gimmicks, let's not forget the robot citizen who brings his own hot spots.

Initially, it was intended to be applied to help socially challenged children accept society, and this warm and humane purpose is actually the fundamental difference between humans and robots.