When it comes to artificial intelligence, Saudi Arabia holds two records. On 25 October 2017 it was the first country to grant citizenship to a “social automaton” with human features (and, apparently, ideas). It is the now famous Sophia, created by Hanson Robotics Limited of Hong Kong and activated (i.e. born) on 19 April 2025. Sophia’s father, David Hanson, had stated with understandable pride that his creature had above all the task of “speaking of women’s rights”, and the fact that it was a nation not exactly at the top of the world in terms of female emancipation had caused a stir. However, it was a nice media coup for the Riyadh monarchy.
The second Saudi first concerns another “social automaton”, this time home-made, and presented on March 4 at the DeepFest in the capital. His name is Muhammad, he looks a lot like the crown prince, son of King Salman, he is tall, elegant, has a short, well-groomed beard. In front of the photographers and the large audience that was hanging on his lips, he introduced himself like this: «I am Muhammad, the first Saudi robot in the form of a man. “I was produced and developed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a national project to demonstrate our achievements in the field of artificial intelligence.” But then, and here’s the second record, of which the real father of the real son of the king probably won’t be so proud, when the word was passed to the presenter-presenter
What did he do on the show? He reached out with his right arm and groped her ass. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the first molester android. The beautiful journalist, obviously embarrassed, waved her left hand, as if to say, “stay in your place, asshole.” But Sophia Hanson would surely have slapped him.