conversation
Celebrity-grade interviews and panel appearances
Real-world demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Operator curation and scripting common; extent varies by event
Research record R-050Public demonstration
Sophia
By Hanson Robotics · Hong Kong · announced March 2016
The world's most famous android and its first robot citizen, a decade into a career of appearances rather than products.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
Sophia, activated by Hanson Robotics in 2016, is the android non-roboticists are most likely to recognize: patented Frubber skin, 60+ facial expressions, and a media career that includes talk shows, UN panels and, in 2017, headline-grabbing Saudi citizenship. Founder David Hanson built her to explore human-robot rapport, and on that measure she succeeded beyond any robot before her.
Sophia is not a product. Units exist in the single digits, appearances are booked through Hanson Robotics, and a 2021 announcement of mass production did not materialize at scale. Her conversational stack, groundbreaking in 2016, now trails modern LLM-driven robots, a gap noted in recent commentary and in the 2025 documentary My Robot Sophia, which chronicled the company's funding struggles.
She remains actively working: a November 2025 partnership had Sophia leading guided meditation with students at USC's School of Cinematic Arts.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Not demonstrated
No commercial deliveries; a handful of units operated by or with Hanson Robotics
Reality check
Sophia's conversations blend scripted material, retrieval and generative responses, with human operators curating many public appearances. Critics have long argued her media persona overstated AI progress; Hanson has framed her as a platform and artwork. Both can be true. Treat any Sophia 'interview' as a produced performance unless the format proves otherwise.
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
3 material claims are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Commercially deployed; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
entertainment
Global media and event star
Commercially deployedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Produced appearances
education
University programs, including 2025 USC meditation sessions
Real-world demoVerified November 2025
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Facilitated
Hardware record.
- Height
- 167 cm
- Weight
- 20 kg
- Locomotion
- Stationary or wheeled base; walking shown only in research collaborations
- Payload
- None
- Runtime
- Mains or battery sessions
- Charging
- Mains
- Top speed
- Not applicable
- Degrees of freedom
- About 74 in full configuration (company figures)
- Hands
- Articulated hands for gesture
- Face / expression
- Frubber skin, 60+ expressions, camera eyes; the defining feature
- Sensors
- Eye cameras, chest 3D sensor, microphones
Software record.
- AI platform
- Hanson AI stack blending scripted dialogue, chatbot engines and LLM integrations; OpenCog research lineage
- Voice
- Conversational speech with expressive face sync
- Languages
- English primarily
- Visual recognition
- Face tracking and recognition
- Memory
- Session and show dependent
- Processing
- Local plus cloud
- Autonomous abilities
- Autonomous conversation possible; public appearances typically curated
- Teleoperation
- Operator curation common in appearances
- Software updates
- Ongoing platform work
- Developer access
- Research collaborations only
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Event-production controlled
- Remote operation possible
- Yes
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Rarely disclosed at events
- Camera / microphone controls
- Operator controlled
- Data deletion
- Not applicable
- Account required
- Not applicable
- Emergency stop
- Operator controlled
- Children and pets
- Supervised appearances only
- Security updates
- Not applicable
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Public demonstration
Public debut at SXSW
- Public demonstration
Saudi citizenship announcement
- Public demonstration
Mass production announced; did not materialize at scale
- Public demonstration
USC meditation partnership; documentary released earlier in 2025
Source register
3 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.