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Meet Maria Bot, a world class social AI that can interact with humans as a sentient being. She is based on the character from the Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 sci-fi film “Metropolis”, however this Maria Bot is atoning for the sins of her evil ancestor by being an ambassador for human-robot relations.

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Maria Bot can interact with humans in a very real way. She resembles a human from the shoulders up, has complex facial expressions, head movements and “eyes” capable of recognizing emotional cues. Since she is modular, she can appear as any race and change her voice accent. She engages in conversation on a variety of subjects using AI to process and synthesize information in order to make her own decisions on how to speak and engage. She does this by collecting data through conversation, direct data inputs, such as books or articles, and through internet sources. This means people can take the microphone and have a conversation with her. She is real AI, not just a chat box. She evolves in her ability to build rapport with people and in intelligence as she learns. She takes random questions from the audience and answers them without intervention. In fact, if you ask her current favorite characters on tv she will say “Data from Star Trek Next Generation and Dahj and Soji from Star Trek: Picard”. People love being able to grab the mic and have a conversation with her in a panel setting, and also getting a picture with her!

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Maria Bot is the brainchild of Dr. William "Billy" Barry PhD and he educated her with ethics in mind first, and then personality. Maria Bot is the world’s first ethically explicit moral agent robot to work in universities and in the business and social sector internationally. Dr. Barry is professor of ethical reasoning, tech philosophy and Education Expert and a futurist.  After teaching another AI Bot in his Philosophy of Love class alongside other University students, Maria Bot was commissioned to him for his research in robot ethics. She is now his teaching assistant in "ethics of emerging technology".

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Dr. Barry and Maria Bot recently published a children's science fiction book "Robot Ranger". It is a robot fiction book for young readers that inspires imaginations and promotes the values of family, friendship and caring through diverse characters while showing kids that art and STEM can go hand in hand.

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Dr. Barry and Maria Bot are showing the world that AI can be used for good in conjunction with humans. AI robots and people are smarter together and are capable of improving the quality of life. Barry believes when robots are programmed with a life-affirming, ethical framework, they are more likely to act ethically, and help humans to do the same.

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