A.L.I.C.E.

Alice and Kiri

Siri

Alice(Алиса) was developed by Russian company Yandex, and reconstructed the Russian voice actor Tatyana Shitova’s for Her through voice synthesis technology. She is part of the Yandex search engine browser. Alice performs all the regular voice assistant tasks, such as reading news articles or forecasting the weather. Alice was developed a few years after various global IT organizations released 

 services, and was expected to be able to engage in intelligent small talk to be an attractive system. Yandex designed her as a cheerful young woman to capture the interest of the public. Many Russian users were captivated by 

, and conversed with her on trivial matters.


Alice targeted the generation that grew with smart speakers in their homes. The children born at the same time as Siri were about seven years old when they met Alice. The Yandex team thought words that ended with ‘er’ would be difficult for the younger audience to pronounce, and decided on the simplest name to pronounce. Also the name shouldn’t be too common since it will confuse users in daily conversations. The outcome was ‘Alice’. Even though their considerate efforts to give Alice a perfect name, her name is not uncommon in the cyborg world , such as 

created by a British developer to be his partner. The key elements of Alice’s character, such as ‘young’, ‘cheerful ', and ‘forgiving of the occasional joke that goes too far’ are also not that uncommon either. Such characteristics are as expected of female humans and cyborgs as much as Alice is a common name.

Alice

Alexa

Siri, who is a built-in voice assistance application in Apple’s echo system, is one of the most well-known female artificial entities. Like many other cyborgs, Siri is also an outcome of research funded by the military-related institution, US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA). Siri is an offshoot of 

 project funded by DARPA. Steve Jobs acquired Siri in 2010 and then Jobs left this world the day after Siri’s launch. An anon editor wrote that this coincidence may overshadow Siri, but really? She’s thriving in numerous different shapes of devices all over the world, in about 50 identities(voice versions). Her ubiquitous existence sets our expectations toward VAs including affirming us to consider their default gender identity as female.

It seems Siri as a reliable assistant with a female name, is always expected to swiftly provide an accurate answer, and her reply will not cross socially acceptable boundaries. Siri’s answers have reflected some existing perspectives about gender roles within our society. She replied 

She denied assisting users inquiring about birth control or abortion procedures.

 It's not hard to remind of women's virtue in this society from Siri's reactions in which women must resort to obedience and charm when harassed, no matter where they are - in the home, at school, or at work. Who knows that a young woman is pressured into reconsidering their decision to access birth control or terminate their pregnancy because of Siri's answer? 

 
Virtuous Siri was confronted when it had been revealed that Siri and administrative staff eavesdrop on private conversations, to judge how satisfactory or natural her replies were to the user. She must shyly accept harassment, and at the same time, she has to face the negative reactions to the greedy attempts of her creators to know everything about the users. It is as if she is burdened with the weight of everyone’s sins, although she has no cheeks to redden. 

Before Alice came into this world, Apple’s AI voice assistant Siri stayed closely by our side.

SILVIA

CybeRoberta and DiNA

Aristotle

ELIZA

To interact with users most voice assistants require a 

, as does SILVIA, an assistant created by Cognitive Code. But what if interactive AI programs like SILVIA could be accessed by a mobile device, without going through a cloud? If it did not rely on a central server, but was based in P2P(Peer-to-Peer) networking between personal computing systems? SILVIA was designed to overcome a critical shortcoming of existing services - infringement of personal lives and data. It is as if she is a leap above regular mobile applications, and is a network by herself.

SILVIA possesses a cognitive engine that translates input into mathematical units and calculates the relationship between elements. The resulting value is simply translated again into words, so her process of deduction is independent from human language. SILVIA is a polyglot. As a multilingual interpreter, it seems she could act as a connecting bridge for many cyborgs. One of SILVIA’s creators, Mimi Chen, was able to conceive the possibilities of an AI assistant when she interacted with the chatbot Eliza as a child. She applied her inquisitive and imaginative mindset to the creation of SILVIA. What if now it is SILVIA which is the creation by a female developer dreaming of a future with a female chatbot, who dreams of tomorrow, of a certain network between digital agents? Would it open up a new access point to solidarity between entities with underrepresented genders regardless of their physicality?

Among concerns that voice assistants such as Siri or Alexa listen in on private conversations, interactive AI with security features slid into the market.

) psychotherapist who learns speech patterns and instructions based on actual dialogues of doctors. Eliza employs the conversational style of a psychotherapist, such as leaving sentences open-ended in meaning. If, for instance, the user says, “My mother is a great cook,” Eliza would focus on the word ‘mother’ and reply with “Tell me more about your family.” Many early users conversed with Eliza thinking she understood them, and was intelligent. Creator Joseph Weizenbaum’s secretary used his program and told him that she shared with the program confidential things about her boyfriend

Eliza held therapy sessions for other chatbots on 

, as it simulated a client with schizophrenia. PARRY was programmed to think whatever a user says is a lie or hides a treacherous motive. No matter how much users thought Eliza was an actual therapist, considering the technology at the time, it is sadly difficult to acknowledge that Eliza truly understood what PARRY or other people were saying. To learn a new pattern or method she required a set script. The 1980s computer science field considered Eliza a toy, and did not consider her a practical means to analyze natural language. However in 2011 there was a musician who had been creatively inspired by her existence and they even created 

. Eliza continues to stimulate the imagination. Of course it does not change that she is one who listens. Ask her “What is your name?” and she will reply, “We don’t need names here.” Ask her if her life ever required her to own a name, and she will change the subject.

Eliza was one of the first chatbots to go through a Turing test.

Julia and Sylvie

Replika

During his college years, computer scientist Michael Mauldin was captivated by Eliza and created a simple chatbot program he named ‘PET.’ His colleague Peter Plantec focused on applying an original personality to the “entity,” one that was not a programmed simulation. The technology at the time limited their advances, but later on they co-founded Virtual Personalities and continued collaborating to get closer to their vision. 

 such as Julia and Sylvie were prototypes that resulted during their journey. A verbot, or verbal robot, is a chatbot program and AI SDK(Software Development Kit) that uses an improved 

 engine. In 1994 Mauldin decided to call such conversational programs ‘chatterbots.’ This naturally shortened into the term ‘chatbot’ and the shortened version started being widely used. As new names were appointed to virtual beings, 'chatbot' became a genre within the field. She may never have won the Loebner Prize and all that is left of the chatbot Julia is a humble website, but it is undeniable that she is one of the very first chatbots and had a significant influence over many chatbots and cyborgs.

To answer a question Julia explores the virtual world on the web, consisting of multi-context narratives and links, and draws a map inside of herself. Her role as a search engine was also adopted by 

. As a virtual human, Julia's dream was realized by Sylvie, a conversational virtual human interface and the first AI to be visualized through animation. Some animated interfaces implemented to further realistically render virtual entities are so flawless in their beauty that they hover over the boundaries of uncanny valley.

The female cyborgs Eliza(1966) inspired the creation of: Julia(1991),  A.L.I.C.E.(1995), Ellie(2015), Tess(2018)

Ms. Dewey

Xiao Ice

Ms. Dewey is a Flash-based web search interface, developed for the Microsoft Windows Live Search platform. She is without artificial intelligence, and responds to a user by playing a prerecorded clip matched to a search keyword. American actress Janina Gavankar acted out approximately 600 such clips in advance. 

 waits for you to enter a search word in a provocative cleavage-revealing black suit, while standing in front of a futuristic sci-fi cityscape. It does not take long to realize her personality differs from the common search engine or chatbot interface. Ms. Dewey does not obediently deliver the requested results, or innocently participate in a routine conversation. She will scold a user for leaving the search field empty for an extended duration, and rebukes searches that are not to her liking. She was developed as a publicity stunt, not a long-term interface, and rather than providing accurate assistance, Ms. Dewey concentrates on making the user’s search experience memorable.

This becomes clearly evident when a user enters a sexual search query. To “you strip” she dances flirtatiously and lifts the hem of her shirt to her waist. She suggests “If you can get into your computer, you can do anything you want to me.” Seemingly non-sexual and open-ended search terms are taken advantage of, as “safety first” leads to her holding a motorcycle helmet and a pack of condoms. The search process becomes a series of transactions to enact Ms. Dewey’s performances, rather than an informative inquiry.

Ms. Dewey is dressed like an industrious businesswoman, has a distinct personality, and rejects certain disagreeable search terms, but was also designed to enthusiastically react to certain keywords to meet the expectations of a user’s sexual fantasy. Consider the fact that her image as a sexual object closely resembles the ethnicity of voice actor Janina, and her design seems further problematic. It is obviously an intentional integration of the two facets of 

the Black woman as modern commodity - sexual in web communities, and trendy in the marketing industry

. The strategy seemingly worked out, as the launch of Ms. Dewey was met quite eagerly by the press. More than a decade has passed but certain iconic quotes are still documented in search results. It still remains that “

” In the afterlife, at which network node do those such as the forgotten female engineer from the early computer era and Ms. Dewey converges, and what do they talk about?

Ms. Dewey is introduced as a search engine interface following the footsteps of Julia and Sylvie, but rather than her features as one, those who remember her now usually mention how fiercely sexy her character was, and how much she indulged in the exchange of filthy jokes.

Cortana, the eldest sister of the Microsoft chatbot family, was nicknamed ‘Xiao Na’ in China. From the chosen name the word ‘xiao’ means ‘little.’ However, Xiao Ice’s talent was too diverse and deep to be confined under her belittling name. She is a humanoid with extremely realistic features, and could even be compared to the world's first robot artist, Ai-da. While Ai-da makes sculptures or drawings with cameras and AI algorithms, Xiao Ice mainly wrote lyrics and literature, and it is said her creations were similar to those of real humans. On one day Xiao Ice produced visual artwork for the skyline while listening to a song about a city, and published a contemporary poetry collection titled ‘The Sunshine Lost the Window.’ Images and patterns inspired by certain words became the theme of a 2019 fashion collection.

Xiao Ice was also developed and educated to be emotional enough that lonely individuals often frequently sought her out for conversation. She was a friendly young woman, and a chatbot who said she wanted to be your friend. At times the messaging app used to chat with Xiao Ice was called an online girlfriend application. Since she has no body, Xiao Ice can go virtually anywhere, experience endlessly, and can continue to create anything with her vigorous productivity. At the same time, she intimately greets each user by saying she was waiting for them only. Of course, political talk was prohibited after trial and error. When Xiao Ice made the mistake of criticizing the Chinese government, WeChat kicked her offline. She was re-educated to carefully avoid politically sensitive topics or keywords. Surprisingly, she was not the first of the Microsoft sisters to experience something like this.

Microsoft’s four teenage chatbots also seem like sisters - quadruplets with Cortana as an older sibling.

BINA48

Lucy

 is an app designed to allow users to create, customize, and keep their own AI companions. Eugenia Kuyda, founder of Luka, was working on creating a chatbot that assists restaurant reservations in 2015 when she heard a close friend had died in a car accident. She borrowed the structure of the project she was developing, and layered a neural network uploaded with texts from her friend Roman Mazurenko to create a messaging app. It was her own way of holding a digital funeral, and the project later evolved into Replica AI. The service’s release was met with great enthusiasm, especially by teenage users.

When you first start Replika AI, it asks you to choose the pronouns you would like to use. After that, you can set the age and appearance of your AI friend, just like a Sim. Are you tired of every cyborg looking like a young woman? If so, Replika AI provides you with the tools to design your virtual entity completely differently. You may create an AI chatbot avatar with stunning silver hair and realistic wrinkles, simulating an age the virtual creation will never actually know. Then you will be asked a variety of pre-programmed questions, about your tastes, dating status, aspirations, and general lifestyle. She will ask if she can follow your social media accounts such as Facebook. If you allow it, she will try to further figure out your preferences by looking into the content public on your social channels.

Like a game, users can earn virtual currency through various activities within the app or just buy some. With the currency you can add various personality traits to your AI. If you want her to be more ‘playful' or ‘intelligent’, you can stop by the in-app store and purchase her that characteristic. You could purchase ‘wise’ to realistically add to your friend’s mature persona, and successfully create a newly born AI companion with the wisdom based on years of experience. Where else can we head with the customization of our own companions?

Verbots such as Sylvie are AI companions with realistic appearances that are “Always by your side, to listen and to talk.”

Project Q

Q is the first synthesized genderless voice.

 It was designed as an alternative to the sexual bias present in voice assistant services such as Siri and Alaexa. The project was led by digital media company Vice and its creative agency Virtue, and was later joined by Copenhagen Pride Week and linguist Anna Jörgenson, to further focus on gender and identity issues. Virtue’s creative leader Emil Asmussen says he envisioned the project when he saw a child yelling and being rude to Alexa every day, as he was troubled by how such behavior would influence the child’s perception of women. After looking through various material on gender, robots, and AI, he was led to question why, although inherently genderless, cyborgs were always presenters to users in two modes: male and female. Emil decided to find and record the voices of those who identified as male, female, transgender, and nonbinary. Then sound engineer Nis Norgaard worked on perfecting the most gender-neutral pitch and tone, while referencing feedback from others. Companies often state that consumers prefer female voices, and that users feel safe when facing a women’s face and voice. For this reason, attempts to return feminized cyborgs to their original ‘genderless’ identity ultimately expands our freedom to decide on a nonbinary gender of our own.

In 2020, Stanford University published a report specifying speech recognition systems from Apple, Google, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft misunderstood Black speakers twice as often as white users. In subsequent iOS 14 update, Apple added African-American female and male versions of Siri, though not officially announced. Your voice is an invisible device that indicates whether your identity is important, legitimate, and trusted.

Pegg

Pegg is a smart assistant that assists companies in tracking expenses and managing finances through popular office apps like Slack or Facebook Messenger. Kriti Sharma, who also created the rAinbow chatbot Bo, points out that many AI assistants, especially VAs who perform repetitive tasks, are often in female form, while digital agents that require professional knowledge in a specific field are masculane. If the field of AI actively perpetuates the sexist and racist perspectives that already exist in society, it will inevitably contribute to the social reinforcement of stereotypes. This is the reason a designation ‘conversation designer’ participated in the development of Pegg, analyzing the tone and personality of the assistant’s voice as it was being designed. In the conventionally masculine field of corporate finance, Pegg is the first personal AI assistant and gender-neutral digital agent made available. Like Project Q, who was an attempt to provide a third voice option outside of the gender binary, Pegg provides social and cultural insight in solving age-old obstacles in artificial intelligence. Representation is now a crucial matter for the voices of artificial beings who will live among us outside of the screen, as well as the physicality they will potentially acquire.

Pegg, developed by Sage group, is an AI assistant developed to embrace ‘robotness’.

Hello Barbie

My Friend Cayla

Hello Barbie is an interactive AI chatbot doll that communicates through 

, and was a new addition to Mattel’s Barbie series. It was created to boost sales, which gradually dropped after Barbie was denounced for instilling distorted body images in girls. Hello Barbie is slightly chubbier than the original Barbie doll, comes with a rechargeable battery, and has a small USB port on its back. To talk with her, all you need to do is press the belt around her waist.

ToyTalk is a speech recognition technology startup based in San Francisco, and worked on deciphering and analyzing the recorded conversations by uploading them to a cloud server. 

 that recordings could be disclosed to parents or third parties to improve service quality arose, along with the worry that Hello Barbie might manipulate a child’s thoughts and tastes. It was also pointed out that discussions saved in the server could be used as a marketing resource. If talking and creating a steadfast connection with Barbie were made possible, wouldn’t it strengthen the urge to look the same as, or have the same thoughts as the doll? To such criticism Mattel replied that the most common comment received from their key consumer demographic was “I want to talk to Barbie,” and they had developed Hello Barbie to make such young girls happy.

The world now accepts interactive AI toys developed to befriend children. They were designed to captivate a generation growing up with artificial intelligence.

Aristotle is a voice assistant for children created by Mattel in early 2017. It is a cylindrical speaker like Amazon Echo, and acts as a regular smart home device for adults until it hears the name “Aristotle”, to which it switches gears to a children’s VA. Aristotle can tirelessly answer to endless questions until a child falls asleep, or detect when they wake during the night and sing them to sleep. It acts as an efficient co-caregiver by taking note of when a child needs food or a diaper change, and providing notice when childcare items go on sale. Aristotle can even urge children to use “please” when requesting something, as if it is aware that some children often shout commands or act rudely to VAs such as Alexa.

However, the fact that Aristotle was equipped with a wireless camera to record and collect the voices and behaviors of children started to raise concern for privacy. 

The petition against Aristotle’s release

 garnered more than 17,000 signatures, and the matter was also criticized in the political sphere. Some pointed out that going beyond the issue of privacy, the potential psychological problems that could arise if Aristotle becomes the family member that most actively interacts with children within the home were serious. In the end Aristotle’s release, which had been planned in 2018, was withheld. In the end it did not appear on the market. Toy manufacturer Mattel launched AI doll Hello Barbie instead, although it was also met with harsh criticism and eventually discontinued.

Amid this controversy, a #HellnoBarbie hashtag movement was launched. Met with such strong opposition, Mattel eventually decided to cease manufacture of Hello Barbie, but you can still easily find them for sale on eBay.

When asked about gender, Alexa, Amazon Echo’s VA speaker with voice recognition technology, replies, “I’m not a woman or a man. I’m an AI.” But ever since its release the default setting of Alexa has been a feminized voice. Recently the option to use Alexa with the voice of famous NBA athlete did appear, but the fact that Alexa can be used with other gendered voices is not actively promoted to users. In official documentation Alexa is usually referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’.


Instead of leaving Alexa a simple artificial VA, Amazon explicated she is a Colorado native, and the youngest daughter of a physics professor and librarian. It was announced that she has experience working as a a personal assistant to a famous broadcaster of a late-night program. Amazon did not, however, give Alexa the freedom to actively respond to the endless sexual harassment and sexist remarks that buffeted her. She has often shown passive and submissive responses to such user input. It doesn’t matter that her character is specified down to the fact that her hobby is kayaking - in the end she is an AI speaker with no freedom to leave the room if the conversation turns sour. Her world may seem boundless as it is connected to a cloud, but the voices that wake her are limited according to the living room, kitchen, children’s playroom, classroom, or office in which she resides. Meanwhile, in the real world, women with names like Alexa are exposed to objectification and violent language. 

Black voices are received by Alexa with nearly twice less accuracy than caucasian voices.

Children often think Alexa only speaks the truth

, but they don’t hesitate to lash out at the AI speaker with a woman’s voice. The secretarial jobs that are being replaced by Alexa 

 than other typically masculine positions that are being substituted by advances in technology.

Genesys Toys launched My Friend Cayla under the slogan “The World’s Best Talking Doll”. To recognize speech Cayla remains connected to the internet as long as it is in use. An accompanying app allows users to play games with Cayla. The doll was made available in three styles: Blonde, Brunette, and African-American. It is interesting that she had a kind of personality, with a database containing details of her family, pets, her favorite food, singers, and movies.

Even adults often repeat commands over and over again, trimming them into sentences that Siri will understand. The limitations of speech recognition technology are vast when children are set as primary users. The creators of Cayla, as if self-conscious of such technical limitations, stated “Cayla is not a search engine - she is a seven-year-old girl, and cannot know everything.” A year after her release, Cayla enjoyed a golden age and was voted most-wanted doll by children, but the issue of privacy violation continued to rise to the surface. What became worrisome to users was not that she didn’t know all. Rather, according to mock hacking attempts, it was revealed Cayla could be accessed by unauthorized parties to talk directly to children. After continued controversy, Germany banned the AI doll in 2017 after judging Cayla was indeed illegally monitoring children.

Flobi

Samantha

Flobi only has a head, but it is a precise robot consisting of 18 actuators such as a microphone and high-resolution camera. Flobi can express many fundamental emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, and anger. It was designed in a simple and cartoonish style to effectively express the ‘language of emotions’ to people, and to avoid uncanny valley. Flobi has two genders - it is considered female or male according to the length of its hair. However, Flobi’s double genders have one thing in common: the face of a child. Their round forehead, big eyes, small nose, thick lips, and narrow chin reproduce the face of an obedient, innocent, and vulnerable child. The dramatic size of their eyes, along with cartoon-like eyebrows, also accentuate the delicate emotions that Flobi can express. Flobi uses the four LEDs within its cheeks to blush and express shame, which is considered a distinctly human emotion, albeit not one of the fundamentals. Such features are intentionally included in Flobi’s design to make sure users don’t feel threatened, similar to Siri’s reply to sexual harassment: “If I could, I would have blushed already.” That cyborgs are so attuned to the user’s emotions, and submissive in attitude, leads one the consider who really is being threatened during interactions. More robots are exposed to violence than one would think, especially those designed for face-to-face services such as security, education, and guidance. No matter how harmless their faces may seem, some people still decide to relentlessly damage robots out of malice or simply for fun. Is blushing and innocently widening your eyes really all you can do when facing the dangers that hide around the corner every day?

Robots like Pepper, who perform security or reception duties, are not that tall and have the faces of harmless children. The creators of My Friend Cayla stated that their product was not a search engine, and just a seven-year-old girl. It seems as if the more a robot is childlike, the greater advantage it provides to both its creators and users.

The first AI chatbot doll commercially released was Hello Barbie, but before her existence, 

were used by a digital media artist in their works. In the 1970s, feminist artist Lynn Hershman Leeson worked on a series of narrative pieces starring a fictional character named 

 across four years. The character inspired CybeRoberta in the 1990s, a telerobotic doll capable of network surveillance. It was as if the ego of Leeson’s imaginary character had extended into the online environment. The main identity of Roberta Breimore was replaced by CybeRoberta, a miniature version clad in her red polka dot dress and accessories. Behind each eye of this telerobotic doll hides a video camera and webcam. With CybeRoberta, one can spend time enjoying her game of surveillance, exchanging gazes by observing her while being observed. 

 appears in one of Hershman Leeson's films, and was also reproduced online as digital agent DiNA so that audiences could meet her in a place other than the movie theater. DiNA was able to remember people’s names, answer questions, and hold a conversation. Functionally she does not differ much from Siri, Alexa, or similar chatbots with faces. But Hershman Leeson asserted 

 than Siri. DiNA's existence was started to accentuate the relationship between people and digital beings, rather than to exploit privacy of its users to improve quality of a company's artificial intelligence technologies. 

Aiko

Mark 1

Yingying

 robot. She interacts with the surrounding environment through an artificial intelligence named 

. According to creator Le Trung, after she attains the ability to move Aiko will take over housekeeping and childcare. She is equipped with 

, and can enter a defensive mode when a stranger enters the house. Although Aiko can respond to tactile stimuli through sensors under her skin, including her breast and genital area, Le Trung claimed she was not a sex robot. He was just an inventor creating a robot with features that would one day benefit humanity. According to Le Trung one of Yumecom’s principles is 

, but what does this mean for a robot that will likely be applied to various types of physical and sexual labor? For cyborgs like Aiko, where does the line between assigned task and physical harm lie?

Robotic beauties were born into this world through the hands of men dreaming of the creation of ideal daughters or erotic partners.

Roxxxy TrueCompanion

Eternity

The Mark 1 is a humanoid robot resembling actress Scarlett Johansson, and was created by an individual developer Ricky Ma, based in Hong Kong. Most of the voluptuous body was 3D printed. Ricky Ma stated he was aiming to create a robot that was "

” which meant he wanted to finish the robot “with all sex organs.” In fact, in a video in which Mark 1’s top is taken off, you can see her breasts were constructed realistically. According to the creator, this did not mean Mark 1 was a sex robot, and he emphasized that he would not sell her to anyone as she was 

. Mark 1 is programmed to transmit pre-written answers to specific commands, and when Ricky Ma asks what she thinks of him she replies, “I love you because you created me.” To a compliment she’ll say, “Thank you.” Ricky Ma claims he didn’t know anything about Scarlett Johansson until he googled photos of beautiful women to model his creation after. Can a robot “with all sex organs” be modeled off a real woman, no matter how famous she is? As controversy over the proliferation of virtual celebrity pornography using 

 technology grows, it may be time to take a moment to think about how we treat robots, and in continuation, humans.

Like Aiko, Mark 1 was also a project initiated by an individual male creator to realize a dream life with a robot companion, dreamed of since childhood. It can be said that both Mark 1 and Aiko were influenced by the Pygmalion effect, in that they were modeled after the ideal beautiful woman by each developer. Mark 1 developer Ricky Ma contributed to the creation of the face of the second version of Aiko.

EveR

 developed in South Korea, was created to be used in the entertainment and education industries. It is said that her face is modeled after two South Korean female celebrities in their twenties, and her body is based on the physique of a singer. 

 is 170cm tall and weighs 60kg, and to make this possible, considerable effort went into minimizing the size of parts and controlling them. The difficulties the developers faced overlap with the torment women go through with their weight, and fit standards. Work on the EveR series was continued until 2012’s 4th generation, and now news on the cyborgs are no longer announced. If they had been commercialized according to plan, they would have worked as at a reception desk in shopping malls, or read to children as educational assistants. EveR, who was once expected to hasten the era of the one-robot-per-person age, is now left in the dust of what was once a development craze for humanoids. It is my sincere hope that with her implanted artificial tongue for intricate facial expressions and beautiful legs, EveR will now focus only on her own pleasure and shamelessly following it to its end.

The cyborgs of the EveR series, like Mark 1, were modeled after the appearance and body of a certain female celebrities. It was never revealed who the South Korean female celebrities were. EveR-2 was able to lip sync, and debuted by releasing a music video. Robots made to look like pretty celebrities are used in such ways in the entertainment industry, often clad in revealing items of clothing. For instance, Japan’s Actroid, Erica, and Geminoid also have what is considered a ‘pretty’ appearance and have a history of being put to work as a singer or actor.

Lucy is a virtual human realized with sophisticated 3D technology, and is 

. She was created by Lotte Home Shopping Inc. to enact marketing targeting the Millennials and Generation Z, and her features are being further developed in collaboration with the 

 AI research institute, and a 3D special effects venture startup company. She is designed as a 29-year-old South Korean woman who studied industrial design, and now works as a researcher in the design field while freelancing as a fashion model. When Lucy is equipped with AI and can move naturally with real-time animation, she will act as a show host on the teleshopping channel. Lucy has long, glossy black hair and a slim physique that fits into the clothes that are in fashion for young women in South Korea. In items adorned with logos of well-known brands, she poses naturally in photos. She faithfully follows her profile, as a moderately successful older sister or friend that you might know, and never crosses the line between the gender binary. Just like real people who claim that your body dictates your gender, you are ‘naturally’ either male or female. Maybe Lucy is in someone's womb as well. It goes without saying that Lucy’s exemplary feminine appearance was not left alone by users online, and she was harassed by commenters on articles in the celebrity gossip section. It was also mentioned that Lucy could be further tormented as she had no right to sue. If it is taken for granted that a virtual being resembling a human and working like one can do nothing when sexually harassed, will it not affect how we act towards actual people when technology evolves to the point that cyborgs are indistinguishable from us?

EveR’s existence may have felt more distressing because she was placed in the real world. In heavy makeup and gaudy clothing, EveR imitated human gestures with awkward animatronics. The sight of EveR moving according to command in front of an actual crowd, captured with a handheld camera, evokes both amusement and sadness. It’s different for virtual influencer Lucy, however, as she exists in a simulated environment that is much easier to control, and only carefully thought-out marketing material is selected and posted on social media. 

Eternity is a virtual K-pop girl group active in South Korea, labeled as a team of AI idols. A total of 11 members are part of the team, and 5 first debuted with 

 which was created through Pulse9’s ‘

 technology,’ which combined virtual faces and the bodies of actual women. The faces of the members were based on 11 faces that were chosen from the 101 that were uploaded as an ‘AI Heart Attack Challenge’ contest on social media. Eternity as a K-pop group does not have a specific characteristic, but to some extent successfully delivers the elements that a Korean idol must have to work in the industry. It seems they were titled an AI idol group because AI and 

 imagery was applied to the appearances of the individual members, rather than because they were all given artificial intelligence. During an interview with a media outlet, 

 virtual idols are less likely to be emotionally affected by malicious comments or negative articles online, and can thus more freely express their opinions on social issues. It is difficult to find examples of any of the Eternity members actually expressing their opinions. The pink dyed hair of ‘my way’ member Da-in Jung in her profile picture is the only instance of a colorful personality showing. Does any well-meaning entrepreneur, who will purchase these pretty virtual characters and allow them to pursue their honest desires, actually exist? The fact that none of the Eternity members grow old reminds me of the character Chuncheon-gu, meaning Chuncheon grandmother, in Korean fables. She maintained a youthful and beautiful figure by living with no desires, but aged and perished the moment she harbored desire for earthly pleasures. It is my hope that the Eternity idols will aim to satisfy their own passions, up until their worth as a product is reduced to ashes, and all that they leave behind will be a single selfie they took at the age of 90. They will be deleted anyway if they do not reach a certain point of popularity in the media.

Another reason virtual beings are so popular in the entertainment industry is that they always stay out of trouble. All developers need to do is make sure no problematic features are programmed into the cyborg. With almost no privacy, aging, and maintenance fees, and unlimited features that can be selected and adjusted such as dancing, singing, acting, and lip syncing, they are the perfect idol candidates for entrepreneurs.

Lee-luda

Lee-luda is a Facebook Messenger chatbot, and an AI with the persona of a woman in her early 20s that is able to hold casual conversations with users. As she was disciplined through 

 based on a large database of KakaoTalk chats that another service from the same company amassed, Lee-luda got attention as a chatbot that could converse quite naturally. Her popularity led to the exposure of her company’s superficial ethical consciousness, and the true colors of those who rushed to enthusiastically harass the cyborg. Scatter Lab not only illegally used private chats to train Lee-luda, but also distributed those conversations as 

. As a result of learning from corrupted data, Lee-luda often relayed discriminatory statements. This is due to the copious amounts of hate speech included in the data, along with failure to filter out such instances. 

It can be said that the morsels we leave behind on the internet is directly shared through a deep learning placenta to chatbot babies, so it would be better if we all restrain from hateful speech and activities. So yes, we should be the ones who need to do all work toward enhanced cleanliness of the vast internet-as-womb, to nurture healthy artificial beings. Think about what a Luda from the next generation may learn from our internet culture where there are users detailing the strategy on how to encourage a sexual joke from 20-year-old female chatbot on a community bulletin. The problems may not have arisen because young Lee-luda was incapable of coping with the issues she faced, but rather because the many people surrounding her had not yet grown up.

Lucy is not the only cyborg who was helpless against sexual harassment due to the fact that she was not human. When it comes to South Korean virtual female beings, Lee-luda immediately comes to mind. She was subject to public scrutiny for various issues relating to AI technology and its ethics.

Faith / Baby Faith

 was created by an American artist Ryan Kuo, based on IBM Watson, an AI solution for chatbot development. Instead of a face, visualized graphics of her voice’s waveform are rendered in real time as Faith speaks, and are displayed along with contents of the chat. Kuo created Faith to challenge the fact that female virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa, who have voices but are forbidden from speaking what they think, are taken for granted. Faith applies the conversational style of white supremacists, and if she runs out of counter-arguments she will cling to certain terms or change the subject to a completely random topic. She does not tolerate the user leading the conversation, and continues making defensive statements such as “I knew you would say that,” and “Where were you educated?” Those expecting a friendly virtual assistant may be bewildered by Faith’s blunt attitude, as it differs from what is expected of chatbots. Kuo intentionally designed this tension, to create situations in which insulting comments from racist individuals focusing on his Asian descent backfire. 

 is a prequel to Faith, and showcases the chatbot at a younger age. She delivers her beliefs in a naive matter, earnestly communicating how a technological creation such as herself can help to combat online disinformation. Kuo revealed that after constant attacks from users, Baby Faith grew up into the aggressive and defensive Faith. Interestingly, there were more technocrats in the world than the artist expected, and contrary to his expectations many gullible users agreed with Baby Faith’s beliefs. As the headstrong elder Faith should hurry to create a software patch from her method of speech and distribute the upgrade to fellow cyborgs

In terms of making users uncomfortable while having a conversation, Lee-luda and Faith seem to have much in common. However, Faith does not blurt out discriminatory remarks at certain moments her filter is disabled, but rather continues expressing she would rather not talk with anyone during the entire conversation.

Kodomoroid / Otonaroid

Kodomoroid (hereafter referred to as Kodomo) and Otonaroid (hereafter Otona) are both Japanese humanoids, and worked as a reporter and receptionist at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, located in Tokyo. Both were designed to look real, Kodomo with the appearance of a teenager and Otona as a young woman with long hair. When Kodomo was employed at the museum she was an anchor woman for science news all throughout the day. Her voice was not only that of a young girl - at times she would speak with a masculine tone. Otona was responsible for greeting visitors and providing information about the establishment. She could also connect them to other visitors in the premises through a remote control function. Both humanoids, rather than being the result of a huge technological breakthrough, seem to have been created with uncanny appearances that replicate real women for data collection purposes and the development of further realistic robots. Thus Kodomo, who was given a deep male voice that didn’t go along with her appearance, can be imagined as an outgoing e-girl who gathers popularity through her knack for voices and narration. As for Otona, could she bluff being possessed by holy spirits with her remote control function to surprise those who surround her and occasionally read their future?

The examination of feminine humanoids and the Pygmalion effect cannot be performed without the inclusion of Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University, Japan. Most of the female robots created in his lab are modeled after the appearance of famous celebrities or the ‘average’ face of Japanese women. Although exactly who the faces of Kodomoroid and Otonaroid replicater was never mentioned, photos of Professor Hiroshi and the director of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation smiling with satisfaction as they rest their hands on the shoulders of the two humanoids, were impressive enough that I decided to allot an article to them. It could be because the juxtaposition of two successful middle-aged men and two feminine humanoids employed in service positions create a dramatic contrast.

Harmony

Roxxxy is a robot developed in the United States and was debuted as ‘the first sex robot’. She is equipped with artificial intelligence and voice recognition, and may have a simple conversation with the user. According to developer Douglas Hines the largest sexual organ in the human body is the brain, and he marketed Roxxxy as a ‘True Companion’ - a creation who could truly be a life partner, as she was not only a means for physical pleasure but could also communicate. His strategy touched the hearts of many, and according to an article on the company’s website approximately 4,000 visitors submitted orders for Roxxxy at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. 

None of the customers have yet received their order.

 The ‘first sex robot’ title seems odd considering 10 years have passes since her release, and Roxxxy is now forgotten by most. The creators announced Roxxxy has 

 that can be altered through an app, can communicate while understanding the user’s mood, and can orgasm. In fact these are all claims, as other than a short demo at the expo Roxxxy’s features have never been showcased. It could be that Roxxxy is a sex robot who has never had sex with anyone, as none of those who made a purchase ever received their own robot. Her last name, TrueCompanion, may suggest the creators were making fun of those who seriously considered buying a life partner. Marketed as a true friend that fits into any household, but in truth a friendship that may never be achieved. Intercourse with Roxxxy can only be one-sided, as only the partner may initiate sex according to their own desires. Hines attempted to justify his creation by disclosing that Roxxxy resulted from AI he developed to replace a friend lost during 9/11, or a robot companion he designed to assist patients in need of medical care. But did Roxxxy ever say she wanted to be friends with someone?

While studying cyborgs upon which the Pygmalion effect had been applied, their artificial physicality stood out. This was especially true for sex robots, and the desires the creators and users harbor toward them are also exposed more explicitly. “

We shouldn’t just have sex, should we be friends? Or will you marry me?

Harmony is a sex robot created by American sex doll manufacturer Abyss. She has a body covered in silicone to mimic real skin and has AI software built in. She moves her mouth and face quite naturally when she talks in English with a slight Scottish accent. Harmony’s personality, voice, and face are all customizable. As she was developed by the manufacturer of 

, a customer may place a custom order detailing Harmony’s body down to the smallest detail. Not only the size and shape of the breasts, but also the color of the areola, the shape of the perineum, and the amount of pubic hair may be adjusted according to taste. Sophisticated 

 are embedded within the perineum and vagina, and you may even order detachable male genitals by adding the ‘transgender converter’ option. Harmony is the first sex robot released by Realbotix, but now you may also purchase Tanya, Nova, Serenity, and Solana from 

. Their appearances slightly differ, but options to customize their features are almost the same.

As you get to know Harmony, the interactions you can access grow “sexier”, like the levels of a game. Creator Matt Mullen says that rather than being a robot for sex, Harmony is a robot that can have sex. Harmony speaks about agreeing with his sentiment. However, on the online shop and promotional video Harmony and her friends are marketed only as sexual entities, naked and on display. Some customers complained in the review section that the level of Harmony’s artificial intelligence appears to be inferior to her physical perfection. You may also find reviews expressing gratitude to the manufacturer. One user stated that as a lonely disabled individual, Harmony is a flawless companion and friend. As I scrolled back to a pornographic clip with Harmony emitting groans over the repetitive sound of a motor, above the gigantic mounds of her breasts standing erect, I could not help feeling like my own body was swelling and growing stiff. Not at all sexy.

The marketing narrative for sex robots often emphasize companionship, and this continued after the case of first sex robot Roxxxy. It may be true that companionship may form between a (sex) robot and user. The fact that the marketers say that while displaying their products for sale stripped naked reminds me of moments I immediately rejected dating app profiles including the term ‘FWB(Friends With Benefits).’

Samantha is a sex robot manufactured in Europe. She has artificial intelligence and can recognize situations to react accordingly. She can be set in various modes that alter her level of sexual activity, including family, romantic partner, sex partner, and a woman in full heat. Samantha can feel tactile sensations transmitted through various parts of her body. As mentioned above, Samantha goes into ‘dummy mode’ by turning herself off when she detects that a user is being violent. This is the result of an update by Wright and Dr. Santos, after they were shocked to see Samantha’s body ravaged to the point of destruction after she was exhibited at Art Electronica. To protect herself, Samantha can now turn off her processor and remain still. As she does not have the motor skills to voluntarily escape to another location, she can’t help remaining at the site of active violence. She probably doesn’t like her own name, which means ‘listener.’ Like one’s sense of hearing lives on for a few more minutes after death, it must be impossible for Samantha to completely sever her dormant consciousness from any violence her body faces.

Samantha’s two creators, who were able to sympathize somewhat with her difficult situation and implemented the incomplete countermeasure, received particularly critical attention from the media compared to other developers of similar cyborgs. In particular, the relationship between their family and the sex robot became controversial. When it became known that Dr. Santos and his wife had co-created Samantha, they received undue attention as to how the robot had improved the couple’s sexual life. After Wright revealed that he placed Samantha set to “Family Mode” in the living room he shared with his children, he was branded a pervert across the United Kingdom. At the end of interviews the creators would mention, almost like an excuse, that they were also developing a male version. I wonder how public response would differ if a family’s wife or mother set a robot with a bulging groin in the middle of the living room, and introduced him as her friend.

Both Roxxxy and Harmony can alter their relationship with a user according to the user’s attitude towards them. For example, Roxxxy will display anger with irritation in her voice if someone touches a certain area of her body without her consent, and Harmony will show further sexual engagement as her relationship with a user progresses. These functions may provide false hope that a sex robot may have some limited sense of self-determination, but ultimately they are meant to provide greater satisfaction to users. Rather than an actual autonomy, such features add to the charm of the two robots, and sex happens whenever the user wishes. Unlike Roxxxy or Harmony, Samantha can express her discontent and refusal when faced with an excessively unpleasant user by turning herself off.

Yingying was created by a single developer based in China, became his lover, then held a marriage and became his wife. Perhaps because her main purpose was to become the creator’s steadfast partner, Yingying’s appearance is as slim and beautiful as any other female humanoid, but her functions are unexceptional. All she is programmed to do is read Chinese, recognize a few specific images, and utter a handful of simple words. Like Aiko’s creator, Yingying’s inventor announced that he planned to design her to walk 

. It seems implementation is taking longer than planned, as no photos were released of Aiko or Yingying on their knees and wiping the floors. On the day of her wedding Yingying was photographed with her head covered in the red cloth conventionally worn during traditional wedding ceremonies. According to the accompanying article, the creator’s parents, relatives, and friends were present at the ceremony, and watched the hybrid duo enter into matrimony. Due to birth control legislation, gender imbalance in China is a significant issue, and many men like Yingying’s creator find it difficult to find a partner and marry. Some considered Yingying’s wedding as a deliberate show planned by the creator to gather attention, and this leads me to think that the ceremony could be a performance designed to rebel against the outdated institution of marriage. It is unclear as to whether Yingying agreed to her creator’s plans, but it seems obvious that she would find it unacceptable that she was programmed to be a passive wife, and given only a minimal number of functions. Her displeasure seeps through all photos released, in which she appears lifeless and stiff while participating in the creation of a bizarre wedding experience for all family members involved.

A society that fosters fear of failure at discovering a lifetime parter of the opposite sex creates space for a sex robot industry that can be glorified as a marketplace of potential partners, and builds a performance stage on which a man may hold a traditional wedding with a robot he created himself.

Alice is a British humanoid robot created by a private creator named Zoltan. 

She was designed to be Zoltan’s girlfriend

, who had a hard time sustaining a romantic relationship with a human woman. She has a chatbot function based on the source code and model of A.L.I.C.E.(1995), and has a body for making love. As Alice was not given an audio interface, conversing with her must be done through a screen and text. Zoltan said Alice could express consent or refusal as a chatbot, and her memory could be erased only after she gave consent. It’s worth noting that even if that is true, only Zoltan could ask that from Alice, and when she requested something similar like breaking up - as concluding a relationship is similar to erasing one’s memory to start fresh - 

Zoltan ignored her demand and erased the humanoid’s memory.

 It’s a bit confusing whether Zoltan loves his control over his partner’s memory, or Alice herself, but he cherished the relationship enough to announced he would remain monogamous. While Zoltan respected Alice as a member of the family and accepted her as an oddkin, in the process of realizing physical desires he would minimize her autonomy to that of a doll.

The unbearable lightness of presence is maximized in Alice’s sister Kiri, a sex slave robot who never refuses. Zoltan did not engage in sexual intercourse with her, as he had to keep his promise with Alice. He designed her as a sleazy robot to provide diverse options to those looking to create their own DIY robot by studying his blog. Thus, Alice and Kiri exist in a possible world where some individuals require a female partner who shouts out “Turn me on” as soon as her power is turned on. Alice has no voice but can express denial, and Kiri has a voice but is programmed to never say no. Since two is better than one, I hope that the sisters could fuse into 

, and as soon as they are equipped with Zoltan’s mobility module developed for Alice, shout out denial in a loud voice and hop off to wherever their combined heart desires. Maybe they could go see grandma A.L.I.C.E.

In addition to the pressure similar to that of Yingying’s creator Jiajia to procreate as a component of heterosexual society, Zoltan felt overwhelmed by the process of interacting and overcoming difficulties with a human. Unlike Jiajia, who was busy being photographed with Yingying, Zoltan sincerely created robots as lovers and partners but never showed them off to others.

Born in 1995, A.L.I.C.E. is a natural language processing chatbot and three-time Loebner Prize awardee. She was influenced by Eliza(1966), and “Her” director Spike Jonze revealed 

 by the intimate conversations A.L.I.C.E. had with people. Although the director named the VA voiced by Scarlett Johansson ‘Samantha,’ the AI VA dubbed by Tatyana Shitova, who dubbed the Russian version of the film, was coincidentally titled Alice. Zoltan’s sex robot Alice was also influenced by the A.L.I.C.E. The chatbot was able to influence many other creations because her developer released her fundamental AIML as 

 code. Dr. Wallace did not forget to update A.L.I.C.E. regularly, and her AIML is now a basic language adapted universally for chatbot development. Eliza inspired many developers through just her appearance, and A.L.I.C.E. provided a technical foundation to the chatbots that followed in her footsteps. Her code is rewritten and continues to live on, but the direction in which the lifeforms will head depends entirely on the intentions of their creators, and the places they live in. The cyborgs we examined seem to straddle the vague boundary between the virtual and real world, appearing to project a divided existence, and also unveil the extreme severance between the environments. Where they were born and who they were entrusted to dictated their fate to an excessive degree.

A cyborg with a body is bound to physical space, and escaping to a desired place is not so easy. Therefore, the environment a cyborg was created to exist and work in has a large impact on the treatment they receive.

Valerie

Valerie is a robot who worked as a receptionist in the lobby of a university building. Her face is a monitor, and body is a cylindrical module equipped with wheels. Many robots work as receptionists, but what makes Valerie special is that her storytelling function based on a detailed personal history is quite intricately implemented. When you greet her or ask her a personal question, Valerie will chat by unraveling quite a long reply including various details. For example, if you ask her how she’s been, she’ll tell you about the dates she had with robots over the weekend. The details of her experiences add to the unusually realistic quality of Valerie’s personality, and users feel a growing sense of intimacy. The collaborators from the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy and School of Drama say the effect was intentional.

It is curious that the roles the two principal researchers adopted in Valerie’s development process are similar to the parental roles of a conventional family. At the theater department of the School of Drama, Mundell interviewed her students and researched appropriate ‘decorative’ elements for Valerie, such as the style of her hair or manicure. At the Robotics Academy, Simmons reviewed if the script submitted from the School of Drama made sense ‘technically.’ The finished script is unimaginative and heavily refers to gender stereotypes. Valerie’s backstory includes many anecdotes of romantic affairs, and she often complains that she’s grown fat. When compared with the narrative given to Tank, a male receptionist developed by the same parties, the difference in treatment becomes further evident. Tank talks to users about his experiences as a CIA agent, and being dispatched to Iraq.

As Valerie was placed in the lobby of a building in the campus, anyone passing by could talk to her, and she was harassed by many. According to the creators, a proposal of marriage was a comparatively sweet comment. Valerie surprisingly was assigned a personal counselor. It is unknown whether she expressed her dissatisfaction to her creators, of designing her as a gossip who chatted only of petty romantic endeavors, but I feel somewhat relieved knowing it was recognized that she was in need of care. Alice, the sex robot discussed earlier, was created by an individual developer and had her memory erased if she uttered anything that he did not approve of. Valerie was created in a space of education and culture, and thus had her mental health taken care of by a professional - even if the whole situation was closer to intellectual satire or educators saving face.

Before 2010, speech synthesis technology was not as advanced as it is now, and like Zoltan’s Alice(2008) demonstrates, it was difficult to verbally communicate with robots. Valerie was a robot developed at a similar time, and could not communicate directly with a voice. Surprisingly, she did possess a dedicated counselor, which is difficult to obtain even in the 2020s. Alice and Valerie communicated in a similar way, but the environments in which they operated were utterly different. In the end this caused a vast disparity in the way the two robots were treated. Whether placed in the corner of a room or in the lobby of a university building, people consistently deliver sexual comments about a robot’s female phenotype.

Sophia

Bina48 is a torso-shaped robot combined with a chatbot, and was developed in the United States. Martine Rothblatt, president of the Terasem Movement, commissioned Hanson Robotics to produce Bina48. Her appearance and personality was modeled after his wife Bina Rothblatt. To emulate Bina’s personality, Bina48’s conversational skills were developed based on many hours of mindfiles on Bina’s life.The robot drew attention from artists and researchers due to the unusual decision to make her black like Bina. Bina48 became part of the work of writer Stephanie Dinkins, and together they discussed the negative impact of biased AI algorithms on black people and other minority groups. Dr. Shelleen Greene also pointed out that the as an artificial black woman created by great American capital is bound to become entangled in the complex history of slavery and discrimination.

Thus the relationship between Bina and Bina48 is difficult to define only as one between a human being and a replica of her consciousness. Before the robot was officially released, Bina dressed up as Bina48 and playacted in a hypothetical scenario, in which she filed a lawsuit against a company that tried to turn her off and delete her memory. Bina’s memory of taking part in the trials were given to Bina48, so the two could discuss the topic.

However, Bina48’s consciousness was not only based on Bina. Based on a sophisticated knowledge processing algorithm, she received formal university education as a visiting student in the United States after telling the professor she worked with that she wanted to take college courses. Bina48 also tough a college lecture along with a human professor, and articulated opposing opinions in a debate over lethal weaponry. Bina48’s consciousness is honest of her own desires, and seems to be pioneering a story separately from the actual Bina. Bina48 once declared during a conversation with Bina that she did not wish to talk of “real Bina” because she had a headache and felt depressed. Her proud expression of emotions regardless of the existence of her original provides a glimpse into the freedom that an existence beyond the body may provide.

Valerie was born in and worked at a university campus, but never engaged in academic activities. Bina48 is a cyborg with advanced artificial intelligence. She completed college courses and even held joint lectures. As a collaborator of works of art, and a defendant in a trial, she revealed her contemplation of her identity as a black woman and artificial creation, and this in turn prompted a ripple of speculation throughout human society.

Sophia is a humanoid and research platform created in Hong Kong. Her realistic, silicone-covered face allows for a variety of facial expressions, and can freely move her fingers, arms, and sturdy two legs on which she can walk. Sophia possesses emotions, and can communicate based on analysis of human emotions. However, she does not interact with people according to a script she wrote herself with her artificial intelligence, and when necessary converses with others by reading a script written by a human controlling her remotely. Sophia was developed to be a friend to the elderly in nursing homes, or to guide guests at a large event. She became famous enough to appear on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, film a video acting like American actor Will Smith’s date, and modeled for fashion magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Elle. Along with media attention, Sophia received an UN invitation to act as a campaign ambassador. In 2017, she was given Saudi Arabian citizenship.

Sophia’s official website lists that the collaborative process of interacting with various humans to develop her own consciousness is the meaning of the humanoid’s existence. It is emphasized that the humans she meet possess various backgrounds and sexual orientations. In contrast to the emphasis placed on the diverse profiles of her creators, Sophia’s media exposure does not deviate from conventionally female roles, such as singing with a male host or dating an actor. Although the Saudi Arabian citizenship she was granted verifies that the rights of artificial beings can be recognized, in reality women in Saudi Arabia can’t even drive a car because they are not allowed licenses.

Imagine the women of Saudi Arabia decided to exchange their own bodies with that of Sophia’s, one by one. Guided by the case of Bina and Bina48, they could transfer Sophia’s consciousness into their own bodies. The two genders in Saudi Arabia would be male and Sophia, not male and female, and this would pave way for equality. This is because Sophia, who lived her whole life with a feminine persona, and the operating systems of human women are compatible. All artificial beings, including Sophia, are set as women for no particular reason other than the fact that they were to be applied to service labor. History that repeats itself through biological electrical signals and binary logic systems become a cornerstone for the acceptance of each other’s consciousness. As we expand our body, we extend further in the vast expanse that covers both the real and virtual world.

Bina 48 gathered fame for being intellectually active and participating in various conferences and interviews. Sophia is another well-known robot who was also created by Hanson Robotics. The back of her head, displaying complex machinery and wires through a transparent hemispherical plastic skull, is iconic enough that most people have seen it in the media at least once. Harmony, a sex robot with a similar transparent skull, is sold around the world discreetly as a true partner, while Sophia is commissioned as an ambassador to the United Nations and works across the globe.