CommercialCommercialHanson Robotics Sophia (2016→): stationary social humanoid, 167 cm, Frubber facial skin enabling 62+ expressions, 74 DoF, 30+ head motors. Long-running PR figure; hybrid symbolic AI + LLM dialogue.
Sophia is the original celebrity humanoid — built by Hanson Robotics (Hong Kong) and first activated 14 February 2016 (wikipedia.org). The 167 cm platform is stationary, with the headline tech in the face: a proprietary "Frubber" (flesh-rubber) skin driven by 30+ head motors enables 62+ distinct expressions; the body adds 74 DoF including articulated fingers, arms and shoulders. Per-hand payload is rated at ~600 g — Sophia was never built for manipulation.
Through 2025-26 Sophia continues to appear at conferences and media events. Hanson has updated her voice and added partial integration with frontier LLMs (e.g. GPT-4), but the underlying control stack remains a hybrid of symbolic AI, neural perception, scripted responses and limited LLM bridging — substantially less capable than current dedicated LLM-driven robots. Saudi Arabia famously granted her citizenship in 2017.
