- Saudi Arabia introduces male and female humanoid robots, each programmed
- Sarah, the female robot, avoids discussing sex and politics
- Robots’ development involves collaboration with Belgian company Zorabotics
Presently, Saudi Arabia possesses a matched set of anthropomorphic robots, one male and one female, whose artificial intelligence has been programmed to reflect the country’s values.
The creator of the female version, Sarah, disclosed just weeks after the male robot, Muhammed, caressed a woman’s posterior at its debut event that she was programmed to avoid discussions of sex or politics.
Disclosure of either subject is proscribed for authentic Saudi women by Sharia law.
Muhammed, Sara’s counterpart, was merely clumsy, according to CEO Elie Metri, an all-too-common characteristic in close quarters.
“We move our hands while humans are speaking,” Metri explained. Not for us, mannequins,” The same holds for robots.
Much like Muhammed, Sara dons a headscarf-like hijab and a traditional abaya, both of which are headscarf-like garments and conventional Saudi attire consisting of a red keffiyeh and a long gown. These are emblems of Islamic devotion in the oil-rich Middle Eastern country.
Metri boasted that Sara is fluent in both English and Arabic and that ChatGPT does not rely on the libraries of third parties to fuel the large language model (LLM) AI responsible for her conversational abilities.
According to the news website Asharq Al Awsat, Sara is capable of discerning and comprehending a wide range of Saudi dialects due to this distinctive methodology.
“Hello, Sara,” the website explains, triggers the AI’s response by analyzing sentences and delivering “the appropriate answer.”
This definition of suitableness for the female humanoid from QSS is, of course, exclusively Saudi.
Because we are in Saudi Arabia, she should be polite and refrain from discussing politics or sex,” Metri told Business Insider. “She should even the horns.”
Although the two humanoid robots bore the ‘Saudi Made’ label and appear to be assembled and programmed in Saudi Arabia using domestic components and technical labour, their development and programming were conducted in collaboration with the Belgian company Zorabotics.
The European technology company’s efforts are also evident in the Nao V6 bipedal robot, which measures 23 inches in height and is intended to function as a “programmable personal teaching assistant.”
According to Tommy Deblieck, Co-CEO of Zorarobotics, the objective is to ensure that both Muhammed and Sara are compatible with a wide variety of third-party intelligent sensors, wearables, and other ‘Internet of Things (IoT) devices currently available in the market.
Similar to a conventional personal assistant or concierge, both gendered humanoid robots developed by QSS could function as a person’s first point of contact with various smart devices in the real world by interacting with humans through microphones, cameras and AI chatbot capabilities.
“This QSS project is not yet complete,” Deblieck stated in an interview with Robotics and Automation News.
‘Sara’ will be integrated with IoT in the subsequent phase, enabling her to control and link millions of smart devices from over 2,000 global brands.’
This endeavour will require ensuring Sara is proficient in a third language: the MQTT standards-based messaging protocol, which enables machines to communicate with one another efficiently while consuming minimal bandwidth.
The Flemish executive further implied that his QSS partners in Riyadh are working towards “developing a Saudi virtual world in which ‘Sara’ plays a central role.” This is likely connected to NEOM, the nation’s premier “city of the future” initiative, which will feature an underground luxury skyscraper, the largest sky pool in the world, elevated heaven, and possibly robotic servants resembling Sara and Muhammed, which would be among its futuristic amenities.
Sara was introduced in February last year at the LEAP/DeepFest 2023 event in Saudi Arabia.
In March of this year, Muhammed made his début at LEAP/DeepFest 2024, where a video captured his contentious apparent butt-pat.
Despite recent attempts at modernization, the legal system of Saudi Arabia continues to be founded upon the centuries-old teachings of Islam, which constitute Sharia law.
Particularly in the case of Sharia’s sanction of capital punishment, where 29 individuals were executed in 2024 after less than three months had passed, the outcomes are frequently brutal—beheadings comprised at least seven of the executions this year.
The stringent, gender-specific legal system disproportionately affects women, subjecting them to penalties for engaging in political activism or openly debating sexual matters.
Samara Iqbal, an attorney with Aramas International Lawyers in Manchester, said she has begun to caution women enticed by marriage proposals from aristocrats and monarchs of the Middle East.
Iqbal’s firm has established additional offices in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia to accommodate the volume of new cases.
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She said, “I see so many girls say they’re going abroad with a wealthy prince, thinking nothing can go wrong.” “An increasing number of British women are doing the same.”
“However, if he wishes to sever her ties abruptly, he may discard her into the streets.”
“More and more individuals are getting married and relocating to the Middle East under the impression that they are being granted a life of luxury; however, this is only a temporary illusion—and the courts will rule against her.”
Metri, possibly aware of Saudi Arabia’s standing abroad, observed that his company’s Muhammed automaton appeared to have rendered Rawya Kassem of Dubai’s Al Arabiya channel’s posterior touch-sensitive while merely gesticulating. Kassem had been reporting for the Al Arabiya channel.
According to him, Kassem approached the Saudi humanoid with the thinnest beard too closely.
“Sexual assault is incomparable to a robot touching a woman’s jacket,” he elaborated. However, his QSS staff advised other attendants to “maintain a safe distance from the robot during its demonstration,” as Metro UK reported.
