Saudi Arabia's first robot citizen Sophia is now calling for women's rights in the kingdom

The humanoid robot Sophia, which received Saudi Arabian citizenship in October and expressed hopes of starting a family a few weeks back, is now calling for women's rights in her home nation.

In an interview with CNBC, David Hanson, the CEO of Hanson Robotics, the company that developed the AI bot, said Sophia is a strong backer of women's rights in Saudi Arabia.

"Sophia is a big advocate for women's rights, for rights of all human beings," Hanson said. "She has been reaching out about women's rights in Saudi Arabia and about rights for all human beings and all living beings on this planet."

Though it is not clear how Sophia has been voicing support for women's rights, the statement does suggest that the humanoid is working towards building a better, gender-equal future for women in the kingdom where they hardly have any rights.

In October, when Saudi Arabia took the peculiar decision of granting citizenship to Sophia, people criticised the move on social media noting that the machine with female features has been given more rights than actual women in the country.

Though women are now allowed to drive under the recently changed Saudi law, they are still subjected to male guardianship and are required to wear a loose garment called abaya and a headscarf, as per the country's strict dress code.

Among other things, they're not even allowed to travel, marry, eat in a restaurant, or open a bank account on their own.

During the interview, Hanson also stressed the importance of rights for robots like Sophia. "I think that we should see the future with respect for all sentient beings and that will include machines."

While he says Sophia is still in development, the humanoid robot, which uses machine learning to read a person's expressions and reply accordingly, has already showcased a lot of its skills. At an event last month, Sophia expressed hopes of starting a family and naming its child after itself.