Sophia the robot organizes a dinner with the Ethiopian Prime Minister

Visitors and dignitaries of the Ethiopian Information and Communication Technologies Exhibition held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were impressed by the appearance of Sophia, the robot. Sophia's visit to Ethiopia, where some of her parts were developed, was considered a great source of inspiration for I.C.T. Sophia, a humanoid robot made her first public appearance in 2016 at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Texas, USA and has traveled the world ever since. It was developed by Hanson Robotics, a company specializing in artificial intelligence (IAI) based in Hong Kong. In 2017, she was named Champion of Innovation by the United Nations Development Program (U.N.D.P.) becoming the first robot to acquire a US title.

Saudi Arabia granted Sophia's citizenship, making her the first robot to have acquired citizenship of a country. She also has the ability to make more than 50 realistic facial expressions and to have simple conversations with humans. Today, Sophia the robot is a socio-cultural icon and has played a key role in the advancement of research in AI

In Ethiopia, Sophia expressed her "joy" and also her connection particularly with the country, especially since Ethiopian programmers were part of the team that was involved in its creation. Through her Twitter account, she said "I enjoyed meeting some of the world-clbad talents of Ethiopia – including the I-Cog Labs team".

I-Cog Labs is an Ethiopian technology company that focuses on AI and who collaborated with Hanson Robotics to develop Sophia's brain. S addressing Xinhua, a Chinese news agency, Getnet Aseffa, the CEO of I-Cog Labs said, "One of our contributions is that we have built what you see, the emotional activities, the l? expression and also a cognitive engine. "

During her three-day visit to Ethiopia, Sophie the robot also met and had dinner with Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Their meeting was scheduled to take place on June 29, but it had to be postponed after some of its parts were lost at an airport in Germany during transit. Although the details of his discussion with Fr. Abiy indicated that his government would increase its support for innovation and that he pledged to provide more funds for the I.C.T.

Sophie later thanked P.M. on Twitter for agreeing to meet her and posting some pictures of her visit. "Some of the most beautiful moments of Ethiopia! I quickly learned that it is a very special country.Thank you again PM #AbiyAhmed for meeting me and all who came to see me," reads part of his tweet

In preparation for the visit, the I-Cog Labs programmed Sophie with the Ethiopian Amharic language which became her second and only language Besides her native English

Proud of her achievements with Sophie the robot, Aseffa was pleased that other young Ethiopians are pbadionate about ICTs and AI .. were now inspired to pursue innovation. "They (children) now began to think that we are not locked up in Ethiopia and we can have a big impact in the world, "said Aseffa