First in the world: Saudi Arabia grants citizenship to robot Sophia

News Network

October 27, 2017

Riyadh, Oct 27: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become world’s country to grand citizenship to a non-human woman, making her world’s first robot to get ‘nationality’.

Sophia is the name of the robot granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia. She looks a bit like Audrey Hepburn and gives facial expressions while talking. She has an answer for every question.

Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics, who is programmed to be witty, was interviewed by business writer Andrew Ross Sorkin at a Future Investment Conference in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Sorkin also announced that Sophia had been awarded citizenship of the oil-rich kingdom, the first for any robot. Saudi Arabia is making an effort to promote itself as a destination to develop artificial intelligence and Sophia’s “citizenship” was a move to bolster the effort.

Audiences at the panel listened riveted as Sorkin grilled Sophia over artificial intelligence, her own programming and concerns over how robots could take over the world.

Sophia, who took to the podium to answer all questions, claimed that her only purpose was to “help humans live a better life. But Sorkin asked her to back up and address concerns over the rise of AI. “Those sound like great goals..but go back to Blade Runner for a second,” said Sorkin.

Sophia, designed to be witty, took the opportunity to take a jibe at Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX and a staunch opponent of AI. “You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies. Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system,” she said.

And don’t think that Elon Musk didn’t notice. The tech innovator tweeted a reply, “Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What’s the worst that could happen?”

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Locals allege VVIP racism after Karandlaje visitis Chamundeshwari temple amidst lockdown

News Network

July 19,2020

Mysuru, Jul 19: Residents in the vicinity of the Chamundeshwari temple alleged VVIP racism against the administration for allowing BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje for a special visit there on Friday.

Even though the district collector had ordered the closure of temple visits due to the COVID pandemic, an exception was made for VVIPs.
The BJP leader claimed that she visited the temple on Thursday evening but the temple officials confirmed that she visited the temple on Friday at 7 am. It is her routine every year to visit the temple on the last Friday of Ashada Masa.

Locals, who tried get darshan of Chamundi Devi, were barred by the police leading to an altercation between locals and cops at the entrance to the temple.

Ashada Masa is considered an auspicious occasion and it is a belief among politicians that for the longevity of their political career, they need to visit Chamundeshwari temple every last Friday of Ashada Masa.

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Karnataka Board of Auqaf asks mosques to conclude Juma prayers in 15 minutes

News Network

March 19,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 19: As a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Karnataka State Board of Auqaf has issued an advisory to mosques, dargahs and other religious institutions, requesting them to conclude the Friday congregation in 15 minutes for the next three weeks.

"Respected head of masjids and imams (prayer leader) are requested to conclude the entire Juma congregation (including Juma khutbah, salah and dua) in 15 minutes for the next three weeks and avoid using the public mic for the khutbah and salah," read a statement from the Karnataka State Board of Auqaf.

It has advised to ensure cleanliness and good hygiene inside mosques and keep the carpets, prayer mats, floor mats etc clean.

Further, it stated that those coming for daily prayers should be instructed to perform wudhu (ablution) at their homes and avoid using prayer caps placed in masjids.

"Please remove the public towels and prayer caps from the masjids. Sunnah and nafil prayers should observed at home," the advisory read.

The advisory came as the number of coronavirus patients spiralled across the country. The governments are taking all precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus that has claimed more than 7,500 lives across the globe since its outbreak in China in December last year.

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Doesn't this reflect upon our stupidity. They have lost the whole point of virus spread. Let's pray as per our so called Muslim religious leaders IQ level that the virus does not spread among the hundreds in that 15 minutes.This is exactly why we are losing it.

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Mangaluru: 160 acre land sanctioned for Coast Guard Academy at Kenjar

News Network

January 31,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 31: Karnataka Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar on Friday announced to sanction 160 acres of land at Kenjar in the Taluk for setting up the Indian Coast Guard Academy.

The land was allotted from the land bank of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB).

Mr Bhaskar made the announcement at the commissioning of the high-speed interceptor boat C-448 of the Indian Coast Guard at New Mangalore recently.

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