Uncertainty prevails over the arrival of first humanoid robot Sophia for the Vizag Fintech Festival and interact with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu as the brand ambassador of artificial intelligence has developed a snag.
The news item published in these columns on Sophia’s participation in the festival – for the first time in Andhra Pradesh after the State bifurcation—has generated a lot of excitement among the fintech community.
Sophia was supposed to address the inaugural of the festival here on the future of fintech and pose a few questions to Mr. Naidu and receive a few from a select group of delegates on Tuesday.
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“True, Sophia, has developed some technical snag at the eleventh hour. However, efforts are on to fix the issues and bring it for the participation in the conference probably on October 24 or on the last day of discussions on various issues facing fintech sector on October 25,” J.A. Chowdary, Special Chief Secretary and IT Advisor to Chief Minister, told
Sophia is developed by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics.
Experts from Hanson Robotics, who are supposed to accompany the robot, are also trying to sort out problems with regard to their visas.
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There are eight variants of the humanoid Sophia, which has been granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia.
“We are hopeful of getting the humanoid robot on October 24 or at least for participation on Demo Day the next day when the 40 finalists will pitch their ideas in the grand finale of $1 Million Startup Challenge,” Mr. Chowdary said.
Video-conference
If Sophia arrives albeit late, the organisers are planning to facilitate interaction with Chief Minister Naidu on the video-conference mode.