affective computing
In plain wordsTechnology that tries to read people's emotions — from their faces, voices or words — or to display emotions of its own, like software that guesses your mood or a robot that seems to show feelings.
Computing research and engineering aimed at machines that register human emotions and moods, respond to them, or produce emotional expression of their own, a field that borrows heavily from psychology and the cognitive sciences. Recognition systems infer emotional states from facial expressions, voice prosody, text, posture or physiological signals such as heart rate and skin conductance, usually with supervisedsupervised learning, n.: Teaching a computer by example: you give it many inputs paired with the right answers, such as photos labeled 'cat' or 'dog', and it learns to answer correctly for new inputs. classifiers trained on labeled examples; synthesis systems give agents, robots and companionsAI companion, n.: A chatbot designed to be a friend, partner or confidant rather than a tool: it remembers you, has a personality and keeps up an ongoing relationship. expressive faces, voices or simulated emotional responses. Applications include tutoring, driver-drowsiness monitoring, accessibility tools, mental-health support and market research. The scientific basis for inferring inner states from outward signals is contested: a 2019 review led by Lisa Feldman Barrett concluded that facial movements are not reliable, universal indicators of specific emotions. The EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models. bans emotion recognitionemotion recognition system, n.: AI that tries to work out how people feel or what they intend from their faces, voices or bodies. The EU bans it at work and in schools and tightly regulates it elsewhere. in workplaces and schools except for medical or safety reasons.
The affective computing module flags rising frustration in a caller's voice and routes the call to a human agent.
Origin
Named by Rosalind Picard of the MIT Media Lab in a 1995 technical report, 'Affective Computing', expanded into her 1997 book of the same title, which argued that computers need emotional abilities to interact naturally with people and perhaps to reason well. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing began publication in 2010.
Usage note
Detecting that someone looks or sounds upset is not the same as knowing what they feel; critics warn that commercial 'emotion AI' blurs the two. Sentiment analysissentiment analysis, n.: Using software to judge the feelings or opinions expressed in text — whether a review, post or comment is positive, negative or neutral, and about what. of text is often grouped with the field but usually concerns opinions rather than emotions.
Related
- emotion recognition systememotion recognition system, n.: AI that tries to work out how people feel or what they intend from their faces, voices or bodies. The EU bans it at work and in schools and tightly regulates it elsewhere.
- sentiment analysissentiment analysis, n.: Using software to judge the feelings or opinions expressed in text — whether a review, post or comment is positive, negative or neutral, and about what.
- facial recognitionfacial recognition, n.: Technology that identifies or checks who someone is by comparing a picture of their face with stored photos, used by phones, passport gates and police databases.
- AI companionAI companion, n.: A chatbot designed to be a friend, partner or confidant rather than a tool: it remembers you, has a personality and keeps up an ongoing relationship.
- biometric databiometric data, n.: Information about your body or behavior — your face, fingerprints, voice, eyes or the way you walk — measured by technology and used to recognize who you are or to guess things about you.
- anthropomorphismanthropomorphism, n.: Treating something that isn't human — a pet, a car, a chatbot — as if it had human thoughts, feelings or intentions. AI that talks fluently makes this temptation unusually strong.
Sources
- Picard, R. W. (1997). Affective Computing. MIT Press.
- Barrett, L. F., Adolphs, R., Marsella, S., Martinez, A. M. & Pollak, S. D. (2019). Emotional Expressions Reconsidered: Challenges to Inferring Emotion From Human Facial Movements. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 20(1).