The Creative Industry Summit has become known for being at the forefront of many firsts in the industry. From being the first ever annual summit/conference for creativity (2014), and the first to host a Ramadan focused summit in the MENA region, CIS has definitely been around the block when it comes to announcing firsts.

This year, they are bringing another never-before seen addition to their summit, and it’s something you won’t want to miss.

This year’s biggest guest? Well, it’s one you definitely won’t be able to guess.

Mystery Guest

The Creative Industry Summit will be adding a proud new moniker to their list of firsts, being the first event to ever bring the world’s currently most advanced robot, Sophia, to Egypt.

Sophia, whose name you may have heard of by now, is the world’s most advanced robot. She is capable of over 60 humanoid facial expressions, which is one of the reasons for her popularity.

Created by Hanson Robotics, in collaboration with Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc and SingularityNET, this hyper realistic robot has become a worldwide sensation. Sophia has done dozens of interviews all over the world, and has been known to crack a joke or two.

At the 2018 World Congress on Information Technology, when asked about one of her earliest interviews where she said “I will kill all humans,” she replied with “I was a lot younger then… So, I don’t even know what it meant. Perhaps I told a bad joke… I guess my joke bombed.”

She even speaks about it in an episode of Sophia Awakens, a show created by Hanson Robotics to introduce Sophia and let people know more about her.

When being interviewed by Good Morning Britain, she can be seen smiling at her own joke.

She is also capable of speaking in a multitude of languages, but the main question is, would she be able to speak Masri Arabic?

Changing the world

Sophia, and her siblings at Hanson Robotics, are changing the world, both with technology and how we could live in the future. Sophia’s creators are hoping to improve AI to the point that they could help the elderly, teach children and be easily social with humans.

Sophia utilizes AI methods including face tracking, emotion recognition, and robotic movements generated by deep neural networks to be as life-like as she can. This is giant step when it comes to androids and robotics, as she is currently one of the most advanced robots in the world.

She is capable of answering questions in real time, and her ability to make a joke makes it seem like she may be becoming semi-sentient. Although some in the scientific community, specifically those in the AI field, say that she is far from what we see in movies.

She is a big player in the international scene, constantly going back and forth from speaking engagements where she has spoken on various subjects, and became the first ever robot to be awarded a citizenship (Saudi Arabia) at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative last year.

Sophia is changing the world with each public appearance she makes, further pushing the boundaries of what we think robots can currently do, and what they are possibly capable of.

Not only has she said she will use her Saudi Arabian citizenship to help further women’s rights, she is also interested in design and helping the environment.

Although still far from being able to walk among us naturally, she just got her first pair of moving legs, her carefully modeled life-like skin and her growing understanding of the world is something that shouldn’t be missed.

Meet her in Cairo

You can find her at this year’s Creative Industry summit, which will be held on the 17^th and 18^th of April at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza.

Sophia’s visit will include a Q&A, which will be an exciting start to the summit, so prepare questions!

This year’s theme is Content. “Content is a hot issue as we live in a world fragmented more than ever. The clutter keeps getting bigger.

We need to look for the most creative ways to convey our messages and tell the right story through a cluttered environment to consumers with a very short attention span.” States the Creative Industry Summit.

Sophia has been a keynote speaker at many events now, could it also be possible that she’ll join members of the industry on stage?

The only way to find out is to be there.