Which was the first robot in the world to be granted full citizenship of a country (Saudi Arabia)?

Sophia, a humanoid (human-like) robot, became the first robot in the world to be granted citizenship of a country. Saudi Arabia granted it citizenship in October 2017, at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh.

About Sophia:

It was developed by Hanson Robotics, a company based in Hong Kong, founded by the American roboticist David Hanson. It was first activated in 2016.

Its face is said to be modelled partly on the actress Audrey Hepburn and on David Hanson's wife.

It is made with a special skin-like material called "Frubber" (flesh rubber), which allows it to make many facial expressions.

It uses artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition and visual data processing to hold simple conversations, recognise faces and mimic human expressions.

Its "brain" combines scripted responses with AI-based chat functions, so its conversation abilities are limited compared to a human.

In November 2017, it became the first non-human to be given a United Nations title, when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) named it its first "Innovation Champion".

Sophia's citizenship was largely symbolic and caused controversy. Critics pointed out that it was granted rights at a time when women in Saudi Arabia still faced many restrictions, and argued that giving citizenship to a machine raised questions about the meaning of rights.

Other famous robots:

• ASIMO: a humanoid robot made by Honda (Japan), first introduced in 2000; it could walk, run and climb stairs.
• Atlas: a humanoid robot built by Boston Dynamics (USA), known for its agility.
• Pepper: a social robot made by SoftBank Robotics (Japan), designed to read human emotions.
• Vyommitra: a humanoid robot made by ISRO for the Gaganyaan mission.

Why not the other options?

• ✗ASIMO was made by Honda.
• ✗Atlas was made by Boston Dynamics.
• ✗Pepper was made by SoftBank Robotics.