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Holly Willoughby squirms as she interviews world's smartest robot on This Morning

21 November 2019, 12:22 | Updated: 21 November 2019, 13:14

Sophia the robot was interviewed by Holly & Phil in a This Morning first earlier today

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were left alarmed after interviewing the 'world's smartest robot' on This Morning earlier today.

Sophie appeared with her creator Dr Hanson today. Picture: ITV

Sophia became the show's first ever robot guest - and managed to suitably freak out Holly and Phil by how clever she seemed to be.

She had flown in from Honk Kong with her creator Dr. David Hanson, and has this year appeared on the cover of Stylist, Harper's Bazaar and also participated in New York Fashion Week.

At the start of the interview, Holly exclaimed: “I can’t keep my eyes off her!”, and Dr Hanson explained: “She serves a lot of AI research and also some applications development, where she can help people through therapy. She’s also an artistic expression. I have a background as an artist and I sculpted her face. And also we develop her personality, so we depict humans. She’s one part human and one part Science-fiction.

Holly and Phil were alarmed by Sophia's talents. Picture: ITV

“She’s a bit mischievous, a bit sassy. She’s quite progressive in her values and speaks out about human rights. And she has been a United Nations Champion of Innovation, so she goes round talking to kids in nations around the world. So that personality is put together by a team of authors and writers and programmers.”

Holly and Phil became visibly disturbed when Dr Hanson said he 'didn't think' that robots would be able to take over from humans in the future.

Sophia participated in London Fashion Week this year. Picture: ITV

When asked about this terrifying scenario by a frightened Holly, he replied: “I don’t think so. If we raise robots amongst humans and give them the best of our values then they’ll learn respect, they’ll learn to love in the broadest sense.

And when Phil pressed him on whether there could be a sinister side to Sophia, he added: “Sinister, but hopeful. Machines gain true consciousness throughout life. There may be something they might be able to teach us as friends, to help us solve some of the hardest problems in history… Nobody knows how machines could awake default consciousness.”

Sophia also drew a picture of Holly. Picture: ITV

Sophia also showed off some impressive drawing skills - explaining that it took her six months to learn how to do it. She even produced a sketch she did of Holly, telling her that she's a huge fan of both This Morning and Dancing On Ice.

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