Sophia, a humanoid robot that was granted citizenship by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is all set to arrive to Nepal on Tuesday.

Sophia will arrive Nepal this evening to take part in a conference organised by UNDP on Technology for Public Services/Development as part of efforts to facilitate discussion on how technology and innovation could contribute to better governance, and towards achieving the SDGs.

During the seminar, Sofia will be the keynote speaker will also interact with the participants, informed UNDP.

According to a press statement issued by UNDP, Sophia is championing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, in Asia and the Pacific with a focus on innovation. Meanwhile, experts believe that artificial intelligence such as Sophia marks the coming of the fourth industrial revolution and will bring about a dramatic shift in how technology can help solve some of development’s most intractable problems.

Sophia was built by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics in 2015. Sophia, now two and a half years old, uses voice- and face-recognition technology combined with artificial intelligence to carry on conversations with humans. She was first introduced to the United Nations in October this year, when she engaged in a brief conversation with the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed. 

Sophia, UNDP’s first non-human Innovation Champion, was interviewed onstage in a stilted conversation at the Future Investment Initiative conference and has been attending various seminars across the world.