Saudi Arabia's First Female Humanoid Robot Embodies Country's Values As It Is Trained To Not Discuss Forbidden Topics

Saudi Arabia has released its first female humanoid robot, which has been programmed to align with the country's values and avoid discussions pertaining to forbidden topics like sex and politics.

Saudi Arabia's First Female Humanoid Robot

The country now has a duo of male and female humanoid robots that have been programmed to embody the values of the country.

Just a few weeks before, the country's male humanoid robot, Muhammed, groped the bottom of a woman during its debut. Its creator has revealed that its female counterpart, Sara, has been coded to refuse discussions pertaining to politics and sex.

Talking about these topics openly is considered illegal for women in Saudi Arabia under the Sharia law.

Sara is aware that she's a girl. She is also 25 years of age, 1.62 meters in height, and wears traditional clothing in Saudi Arabia. This is according to the CEO of QSS AI & Robots.

According to CEO Elie Metri, Muhammed was just clumsy, which is a trait that is all too human. Metri explains that while humans speak, they also move their hands. The same is for these robots, which are not mannequins.

Similar to Muhammed, who wears a red keffiyeh and long gown, Sara also wears an abaya, headscarf-like hijab, and long-flowing modest dress. These symbolized Islamic piety in the Middle-Eastern country that is rich in oil.

Sara also speaks both Arabic and English. Metri also boasts that the LLM (large language model) that powers the female bot's skills does not depend on the libraries of anyone else. It does not even depend on ChatGPT's.

This distinct approach implies that Sara is capable of detecting and understanding various Saudi dialects.

Humanoid Robots

Though the two bots result from the technical labor and domestic parts of Saudi, both of them were programmed and manufactured in collaboration with Zorarobotics firm in Belgium. The handiwork of the tech firm can also be witnessed in the Nao V7 bipedal robot, which is meant to be a personal, programmable teaching assistant.

Co-CEO Tommy Deblieck from Zorarobotics explains that the goal for both muhammed and Sara is for them to be compatible with hosts of wearables, third-party smart sensors, and other kinds of IoT (Internet of Things) devices available on the market.

Through interactions with humans through a system of cameras, microphones, and AI chatbot skills, both humanoid robots of the QSSS could act like a point of contact with different smart devices. This could be similar to a usual personal assistant or concierge.

Deblieck also shares that the project of QSS is not yet done. In the coming phase, Sara will be connected to an IOT that will allow her to link and control millions of smart devices from over 2,000 brands all over the world. Such efforts will ensure that the female robot could speak another language, the MQTT standards-based messaging protocol. This allows machines to effectively talk to other machines with limited bandwidth only.

Sara first debuted during the LEAP/DeepFest 2023 of Saudi Arabia, which was held in February last year. On the other hand, Muhammed was unveiled this March as part of this year's LEAP/DeepFest. This was when its controversial butt-pat was caught on camera.

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