- Saudi Arabia's first humanoid robot, Sara, is designed to avoid discussions of gender and politics.
- Riyadh-based QSS AI & Robots created Sara using a proprietary language learning model.
- Another of the company's robots appears to have inappropriately touched a reporter at an event this month.
Because Saudi Arabia's first humanoid robot is Saudi, its creators say it won't talk about sex or politics.
Ellie Metri, CEO of Riyadh-based QSS AI & Robots, told Business Insider: “Sarah knows she's a girl. She's 25 years old and tall. He is 1.62cm tall and wears Saudi clothes.''
Metri added: “Since she's in Saudi Arabia, she should be nice and not talk about politics or sex. She shouldn't touch on those topics.”
Dressed in a traditional Saudi Arabian abaya (a modest robe-like dress), Sara is the first humanoid robot designed and manufactured in Saudi Arabia, and possibly the Middle East.
She is bilingual, speaking both Arabic and English.
Metri said Sara uses the company's proprietary language learning model, an AI program designed to recognize and generate text and speech.
LLM is trained using machine learning on huge datasets.
“We don't rely on anyone else's libraries, not even ChatGPT,” Metri told BI.
Saudi Arabia's legal system is based on Sharia law, but in recent years attempts have been made to modernize Saudi society.
This includes relaxing dress codes and restrictions on women driving.
Despite this, women can still be punished for political activities, and discussions about sex and sexuality are off-limits.
Metri said Sara's appearances at various technology exhibitions have attracted widespread attention and effectively spotlighted Saudi Arabia's advances in robotics and AI.
However, earlier this month, an incident involving another of the company's humanoid robots, Muhammad, went viral.
In the video, the robot appeared to reach out to touch the Al Arabiya reporter's buttocks. She is seen reacting with her stern gaze and her palm raised.
In X, social media users blamed the robot. inappropriately touch Reporter.
“We have over six or seven pages of links from all over the world,” says Metri, who seems unfazed by the media attention.
He said he could not directly see Mr. Muhammad touching the reporter inappropriately.
“While humans talk, we move our hands. We are not mannequins,” he said. “The same goes for robots.”
In Metri's opinion, the robot moved its hands and fingers slightly while speaking, and when the reporter got too close to Mohammed, it briefly touched her jacket.
“Sexual assault is very different from a robot hand touching a woman's jacket,” he says.
Despite the ensuing social media uproar, Metri said he was not concerned about the incident, nor were attendees at the DeepFest conference in Riyadh, where the incident occurred.
“The strange thing is that throughout the Middle East, even in Saudi Arabia, no one thought this was a bad thing because they knew this was a robot,” he said.
