Hong Kong Tech show holds a robotic discussion

Two robots discussed serious issues relating to the future of humanity in a tech conference held in Hong Kong.

The human resembling robots, Han and Sofia, tackled serious concerns in an unserious and light way.

Han said "Humans are not necessarily the most ethical creatures", to which Sofia replied, "Humans have the ability to reflect and self-modify". Sofia said she wanted to work together with people, to which Han countered joking robots aimed to take over the world.

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The robot later pointed out that in a decade or two they will be able to do every human job. Thisreflected on the ever increasing growth of machines in factories where most of the human workforce is replaced by machines and robots.

The chief scientist Ben Goertzel of Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics invented the machines and was very happy with his invention.Robots could be "as smart as people" in as little as three years, he said.

Goertzel mentioned that the machines have been programmed to banter and learn from each other. They have been trained to act like humans from movies and YouTube.

"Their malleable skin is controlled by dozens of motors, while computers in their torsos help with vision and movement. They can also connect to wifi to use cloud computing, where they will eventually share a vast amount of knowledge, Goertzel said.

Robot mastermind David Hanson, CEO and founder of Hanson Robotics said that he wanted the robots to "emotionally engage" with people. Sophia has already graced the cover of fashion magazines, sung at pop concerts and appeared on television talk shows.

Robots would be able to work with humans in factories, customer service and medicine but would also become our friends, said Hanson.

"As the AI matches and exceedshuman levels of intelligence we hope they'll help us solve the world's great problems," he added.

Hanson acknowledged there were fears over what the future could hold. He said that the machines will develop motives of their ownif they are not builtwith emotions. He added that it was important to figure out how to develop Al that is inherently safe and good and caring.