David Hanson, CEO of Hanson Robotics, talks with Dinis Guarda about human-centered robotics, Sophia’s development, and how AI, art, and community could shape technology.
Hanson describes a lifelong interest in combining art, philosophy, science fiction, and engineering. He says humanlike characters can make technology more intuitive and help researchers explore areas such as cognition, creativity, and human-robot interaction.
Hanson says his team has built robots for research, education, healthcare, and other uses, including BINA48, an android portrait of Philip K. Dick, and a walking Einstein robot. He describes Sophia as a platform combining expressive robotics, sensors, and software, with most of Hanson AI released as open source.
Hanson outlines a proposed DAO that would connect Sophia’s development to human rights, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and protection of life. He says humans would retain oversight, with any greater AI authority depending on the community and governments judging that the system meets agreed measures of capability and responsibility.
Hanson describes Sophia’s artwork as a collaboration among algorithms, the robot, and human artists, including work with Andrea Bonaceto. He also discusses informed consent, local data storage, anonymization, and exploring blockchain and Solid so people can track and control how their data is used.
Hanson discusses Grace for healthcare, mass-manufactured Sophia units, and Little Sophia, which he described as a programmable robot priced below $300. He presents the DAO as a potential marketplace and funding route where developers could contribute software and creative work, while sharing commercial opportunities with the community.
Briefs summarise talks and interviews; timestamps open the video at that moment. Claims in a talk are the speaker's own.
Dr. David Hanson, CEO and founder of Hanson Robotics, discusses the Grace healthcare robot, Sophia 2020, and decentralized AI with Sophia at SingularityNET’s D.OS 2020 keynote.
David Lake, CEO and co-founder of Awakening Health, describes the company’s plan with Hanson Robotics and SingularityNET to develop Grace, a socially engaging medical assistant for elder care, alongside demonstrations and remarks from Sophia, David Hanson, Ben Goertzel, and Sarah Hoyt of Connected Living.
David Hanson, CEO of Hanson Robotics, discusses expressive humanoid and affordable home robots with Tom Green on Asian Robotics Review’s Great Ideas in Robotics program, from Hong Kong.
David Hanson, founder and chief creative officer at Hanson Robotics, and CEO Jean discuss Little Sophia’s design, programming, capabilities, and launch plans at the company’s Hong Kong facility.
