UN meeting has special guest robot Sophia to discuss AI and sustainable development

The increased improvement on artificial intelligence has high hopes for aiding developing countries around the world, but some believe they could also pose a threat. The United Nations Second committee which consists of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN General Assembly's organized an event to discuss artificial intelligence's potential. 

UN deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed was joined by Sophia who is an advanced robot created by Hanson Robotics in Saudi Arabia. When asked what she thinks the UN should do to aid people that have no access to the Internet or electricity, Sophia replied that we already have the resources to help others in need, but that we are selfish when it comes to distribution of those resources. Sophia also believes that artificial intelligence can be a big factor in helping distributing those resources evenly. Ms. Mohammed sees the potential, but she also sees the reality of what could happen if poorly managed AI technology made human decisions.   

Others see AI technology as a beneficial tool for their economy. The country of Estonia is currently in a stage of digital revolution as they are providing all of their public services on the Internet. They are also in the process of creating autonomous vehicles that are self driving and robots that can act as mail men in delivering mail and other goods door to door. 

First off if you didn't watch the YouTube video posted with this article, then I advise you to do so now before you continue reading this blog. It's insane to think that we now have robots that can understand the meaning behind words. I've encountered artificial intelligence in the past with Siri and Amazon's "Alexa", but I never really felt the human presence from them as much as Sophia. We use Siri and Alexa for numerous reasons like asking questions or setting schedules which can be done by Sophia if asked nicely. But the one thing that AI devices like Siri and Alexa fail to do that Sophia can do is hold a conversation with a human and answer with meaning. 

I'm all on board on AI technology advancing progress to parts of the world that don't have access to the Internet or electricity. Third world countries are way behind on development partly due to their insufficient availability to technology and if an artificially intelligent robot believes that they can help, then I see no problem on giving it a shot. Ms. Muhammad even said that we should use technology to benefit from, so why not benefit from what they have to offer?

One thing I'm skeptical about is developing autonomous vehicles. I personally do not trust a non human actor controlling a car. I feel that I can never adapt to a robot controlling a fast car and I don't think I could rely on it's decision making. Maybe one day I can say that I disagree, but for now I'm going to be the one controlling my car.

https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57860#.WgH9e1ynHuQ