Dinis Guarda Interviews David Hanson; Top World Roboticist And The Creator Of Sophia The Robot

· Dinis Guarda’s recent interview with David Hanson continues in the tradition of Dinis Guarda citiesabc openbusinesscouncil YouTube Series interviews with leading personalities in their fields.

· David Hanson is a global authority in AI and Robotics, creator of Sophia the Robot and CEO of Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong-based robotics company known for creating robots that look and act genuinely alive. 

Top leading roboticist David Hanson is the latest global thought leader guest for Dinis Guarda citiesabc openbusinesscouncil YouTube Series. Conducted by citiesabc and openbusinesscouncil founder Dinis Guarda, both experts talk extensively about AI and robotics and the importance of community, cutting-edge technology advancements and ethics in creating robots like Sophia for the future of mankind.

David Hanson Interview Summary

“It has seemed to me that humanizing the machines, making them into human characters [like Sophia the Robot] combining the best of AI, robotics and other technologies with the arts can transform cold technology to something that speaks to the human heart.”

In this extract from the podcast-like interview, David Hanson explained how robots can radically transform one area that was thought out-of-limits for machines: art. Talking about Sophia the Robot’s latest auction of her NFTs digital artwork, Mr. Hanson added that: “The idea of combining both techniques and technologies with cognitive robotics where the machines are operating under the principles of artificial life, learning, growing and experiment can transform how art is perceived by the consumers and by the artists.”

Published on Dinis Guarda YouTube channel, David Hanson provides a masterclass of how new iterations of AI and humanoid robots can support humans in a vast array of ways. Hanson believes social humanoid robots have the potential to serve humanity in a variety of functions and helping roles, like tutor, companion, or security guard. 

David Hanson Biography

In fact, David Hanson is a global authority in AI and robotics. Through his company, Hanson Robotics, David develops robots that are widely regarded as the world’s most human-like in appearance. To accomplish these goals, Hanson integrates figurative arts with cognitive science and robotics engineering, inventions novel skin materials, facial expression mechanisms, and collaborative developments in AI, within humanoid artworks like Sophia the robot, which can engage people in naturalistic face-to-face conversations and currently serve in AI research, education, therapy, and other uses.

Throughout the interview, Mr. Hanson argues the realism of his work has the potential to pose "an identity challenge to the human being", and that realistic robots may polarize the market between those who love realistic robots and those who find them disturbing. Many of Hanson's creations currently serve at research or non-profit institutions around the world, including at the University of Cambridge, University of Geneva, University of Pisa and in laboratories for cognitive science and AI research.

That is why he believes that “for AI to truly become the disruptive technology we expect it has to be seen and developed as a cultural technology. We are developing AI and robots that will help us, that will take care of that and the planet, not to destroy us.”

He said: “I had a fascination with art, science fiction, and philosophy, dreaming of what robots could be. I imagined that if artificial intelligence ever did match human intelligence that it would re-design itself to be ever smarter, ever faster, you would have something like a Moore’s Law of super intelligent machines.”

Creator of the most advanced humanoid robot: Sophia the Robot

Mr. Hanson is globally known for creating Sophia the Robot and other robots designed to mimic human behavior. Activated on February 14, 2016, Sophia is considered one of the most advanced robots in the world. Sophia has received widespread media attention, and was the first robot to be granted citizenship.

The character of Sophia captures the imagination of global audiences. Sophia is now a household name, with appearances on the Tonight Show and Good Morning Britain, in addition to speaking at hundreds of conferences around the world.

 But David Hanson’s career is extensive, as it can be seen in the interview, and he speaks fondly of other robots designed and created by Hanson, including:

• Zeno, a two-foot tall robot designed in the style of a cartoon boy, which provides treatment sessions to children with autism in Texas as a result of a collaboration between the University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas Autism Treatment Center, Texas Instruments and National Instruments, and Hanson.
• Albert Einstein HUBO, a robotic head designed to look like Albert Einstein's and put it on top of the "HUBO" bipedal robotic frame, and Professor Einstein, a 14.5 inch personal robot that engages in conversation and acts as a companion/tutor.

Other works

As a researcher, Hanson published dozens of papers in materials science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and robotics journals — including SPIE, IEEE, the International Journal of Cognitive Science, IROS, AAAI, AI magazine and more. He wrote two books including “Humanizing Robots” and received several patents.

Some of his cutting-edge publications are:

• Humanizing Robots: How making humanoids can make us more human, Sep 2, 2017 by David Hanson
• The Coming Robot Revolution: Expectations and Fears About Emerging Intelligent, Humanlike Machines, Feb 27, 2009, by Yoseph Bar-Cohen and David Hanson
• Humanizing Interfaces-- an Integrative Analysis of HumanLike Robots: David Hanson's Doctoral Dissertation at the University of Texas at Dallas, Interactive ... and Engineering, Ph.D. received in 2007. Jun 4, 2017, by David Hanson

A growing Youtube channel featuring top leaders like Ben Goertzel and government officials like Naokazu Takemoto, former Minister of State for Science and Technology of Japan

Dinis’ youtube channel centres round conducting interviews with global top thought leaders, influencers, experts and people shaping and creating new narratives, solutions, and the tech needed to improve our world, society and business industries. The videos are part of the platform he founded citiesabc.com - a wiki 4IR intelligent Smart Cities tech Digital Platform for Reinventing and Uniting Cities, Universities, organisation and Citizens.

Previous interviewees include, amongst others, Ben Goertzel, the CEO and founder of SingularityNET, a project combining artificial intelligence and blockchain to democratize access to artificial intelligence and ex-Chief Scientist of Hanson Robotics, the company of David Hanson, or Joel Dietz, the founding member of Ethereum, now re-imagining crypto-investing as the founder of Swarm Fund. A respected crypto-veteran, Joel co-founded the first smart contract educational channel (EtherCasts), the Ethereum Silicon Valley meetup, wrote the original AppCoin Manifesto, and built the first decentralized asset and governance platforms on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Watch the full interview now on Dinis Guarda YouTube Channel

Read David Hanson’s full biography

Read more about Hanson Robotics

Read more about Sophia The Robot

About citiesabc

citiesabc offers the largest global index of up to 1000 cities and ranks them along the dimensions of smart cities infrastructure and sustainability. Citiesabc seek to inform and empower the citizen in their engagement with their civil authorities, local economy and their community, by providing them with an open-platform for information, 4IR tools and technologies. Cities Civic leaders, via the platform, are able to communicate, educate and engage citizens, citizen groups and the local economy to meet their particular needs utilising Smart City 4IR Technology.

About openbusinesscouncil

The leading digital business Directory and unique Integrated App, Communication and Marketplace for Companies, SMEs, startups and entrepreneurs. openbusinesscouncil provides resources and business information in finance, technology and innovation. openbusinesscouncil is an ecosystem that uses blockchain and artificial intelligence to improve your business, increase your digital visibility, engage with customers, improve your sales and use the best digital, financial and funding tools to grow ROI - return on investment and ROA - return on attention.