emotion recognition system
In plain wordsAI 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.
Under 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., an AI system meant to detect or deduce what people feel or intend from their biometric data, such as facial expressions, voice, gait or physiological signals. The recitals give examples ranging from happiness, anger and disgust to embarrassment, contempt and amusement, but exclude physical states such as pain or fatigue and the simple detection of evident expressions or gestures when no emotion is inferred from them. Using such systems in workplaces and educational institutions is a prohibited practiceprohibited AI practices, n.: Uses of AI that the EU bans outright as too harmful — such as manipulating people, social scoring, and most live facial recognition by police in public places., except for medical or safety reasons; other emotion recognition is high-riskhigh-risk AI system, n.: Under EU law, an AI system used where mistakes could seriously hurt people's safety or rights — in hiring, schooling, loans, policing, borders or products like medical devices — and which must therefore pass strict checks., and deployers must inform the people exposed to it.
Detecting a driver's drowsiness is not emotion recognition, but scoring a job candidate's enthusiasm is.
Origin
Builds on affective computing, a research field named by Rosalind Picard of MIT in 1995, and on Paul Ekman's theory of universal basic emotions. The legal definition appeared in the 2021 AI Act proposal, and the workplace and education ban was added in the 2023 negotiations.
Usage note
Labeled contested because many psychologists dispute that facial movements reliably reveal inner emotional states, especially across cultures — the central argument of a 2019 review by Lisa Feldman Barrett and colleagues, and one reason given for the ban.
Related
- prohibited AI practicesprohibited AI practices, n.: Uses of AI that the EU bans outright as too harmful — such as manipulating people, social scoring, and most live facial recognition by police in public places.
- biometric categorisationbiometric categorisation, n.: Using AI to sort people into groups — by age, sex, ethnicity and the like — from their faces, voices or other body features. The EU bans using it to guess sensitive traits such as religion or sexuality.
- transparency obligationstransparency obligations, n.: EU rules requiring that people be told when they are dealing with AI: chatbots must say they are bots, AI-made content must be marked, and deepfakes must be labeled.
- high-risk AI systemhigh-risk AI system, n.: Under EU law, an AI system used where mistakes could seriously hurt people's safety or rights — in hiring, schooling, loans, policing, borders or products like medical devices — and which must therefore pass strict checks.
- 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 surveillanceAI surveillance, n.: Using AI to watch, identify, track or profile people on a scale no team of humans could manage, for example by scanning camera feeds or analyzing phone and online data.
Sources
- 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), 1–68.
Defined in law or standards
EU AI Act (Reg. (EU) 2024/1689), Art. 3(39) and Recital 18; prohibition Art. 5(1)(f); high-risk Annex III point 1(c); transparency Art. 50(3)
Mentioned in
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., affective computingaffective computing, n.: Technology 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., AI surveillanceAI surveillance, n.: Using AI to watch, identify, track or profile people on a scale no team of humans could manage, for example by scanning camera feeds or analyzing phone and online data., 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., prohibited AI practicesprohibited AI practices, n.: Uses of AI that the EU bans outright as too harmful — such as manipulating people, social scoring, and most live facial recognition by police in public places., 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., transparency obligationstransparency obligations, n.: EU rules requiring that people be told when they are dealing with AI: chatbots must say they are bots, AI-made content must be marked, and deepfakes must be labeled., action recognitionaction recognition, n.: Teaching computers to recognize what people are doing in a video, such as running, waving, cooking or falling, rather than just which objects appear in it., biometric categorisationbiometric categorisation, n.: Using AI to sort people into groups — by age, sex, ethnicity and the like — from their faces, voices or other body features. The EU bans using it to guess sensitive traits such as religion or sexuality.