Putting Sophia on the bill, ethically (an open letter)

me with two people in costumes basically giant puppets
I actually like puppets.
There is now an update at the bottom of this post with outcomes!

 I was invited on relatively short notice to participate in the World AI Show in Mauritius next week. While we were negotiating about whether the travel required was actually feasible, they announced the participation of a robot called Sophia as if that robot was a human.  There have been great articles before about how wrong it is to present Sophia this way in the popular press, as well as of course my own academic articles,  both philosophical and legal. Noel Sharkey just wrote a long one documenting the history of show robots.  But I am concerned that  a lot of the  discussion I see on twitter at least is focussing too much on robots being puppets. Because as we continue improving AI, "puppet" becomes a worse and worse metaphor. 

Here are two open letters I sent to World AI Show that are general to my feelings about involvement in conferences with robots being presented as human.  The first one was rather brief: 
I'm sorry, I cannot participate in this event if you are claiming that a robot is giving a keynote. I cannot support this kind of fraud.
I've sent very similar emails before, even when being offered decent money to participate in a meeting (most meetings don't offer money, if you are wondering, but some do, especially if they are proprietary to a company.)

The World Show AI though responded with a long and considerate email about the importance of this meeting for Africa and Africans, so I wrote a second email. Unfortunately, we concluded in the end that the travel isn't possible, so I will not be going, and do not know whether or to what extent these suggestions will be implemented.
Dear Mr. Singh,
Thank you for your considerate email.  [But] I do not see how it would help the farmers of Africa if I participate in a charade that deceives them about who actually controls technology. I will participate [in your meeting] on two conditions: 
  1. That it is made clear that the robot is reading a keynote prepared by another party, and who that party is, who the human or human agency is that stands behind the words of that keynote. 
  2. That on the panel, one of the robot’s programmers is also on the panel, and can answer any questions the other panelists have. 
Actually, there is still a third condition which was the first I brought up, which had to do with flights [...]  But regardless of whether I can make it to Mauritius, I strongly advise the two points above. 
Yours sincerely,
Joanna
Update, 30 November
I've just heard that the World AI Show did make it clear that the keynote given by Sophia was completely scripted.  Excellent news, and thanks to everyone involved!  Though I also heard that it was presented as a citizen of Saudi Arabia, which is false. It only received an "honorary citizenship." The idea of citizens you can buy and sell is obviously antithetical to democracy, as some citizens of Malta recently made clear.

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