Saudi Arabia’s first humanoid robot wouldn’t possibly communicate about sex or politics because it’s Saudi, its author said.
Elie Metri, CEO of QSS AI
Metri added: “She’s nice, don’t talk about politics, don’t talk about sex because we’re in Saudi Arabia. It doesn’t address those issues. “
Sara, who wears a classic Saudi abaya, a modest dress-like dress, is the first humanoid robot designed and manufactured in Saudi Arabia and, in all likelihood, the Middle East.
She is bilingual and speaks Arabic and English.
Metri said Sara uses the company’s own language style: an artificial intelligence program designed to recognize and generate text and speech.
LLMs are learning devices trained on massive knowledge sets.
“We’re not dependent on other people’s libraries, not even ChatGPT,” Metri told BI.
The Saudi legal formula is based on Sharia law, and attempts have been made in recent years to modernize Saudi society.
These come with relaxing regulations about dress codes and women behind the wheel.
However, they can still be punished for their political activism and discussions of sex and sexuality are banned.
Metri said Sara has attracted widespread attention following her appearances at generation exhibitions, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s progress in robotics and artificial intelligence.
However, an incident earlier this month involving the company’s humanoid robot, Muhammad, went viral.
In one video, the robot appeared to manage to touch the buttocks of an Al Arabiya journalist. She can be seen responding with a stern look and a raised palm.
In X, social media accused the robot of inappropriately touching the journalist.
“I have more than six or seven pages of links from all over the world,” said Metri, who seemed unfazed by the media attention.
He said that, in person, it appeared that Muhammad had touched the journalist inappropriately.
“While humans talk, we move our hands, we are mannequins,” he said. “It’s the same with a robot. “
Metri said he believed the robot moved his hand and hands as he spoke, and that because the reporter was too close to Muhammad, he lightly touched his jacket.
“A sexual assault is completely different than a robotic hand touching a woman’s jacket,” he said.
Despite the resulting social media frenzy, Metri said he was not involved in the incident, nor were attendees at the DeepFest convention in Riyadh, where it occurred.
“What’s strange is that all over the Middle East, even in Saudi Arabia, no one saw this as a bad thing because they know it’s a robot,” he said.
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