Magazine BEAST #15 2019

70 #Technology | AI
EMOTIONS:
THE NEXT AI MILESTONE
BY FATEH AMROUNE
Emotions and «Artificial Intelligence», at a first
glance, are two concepts worlds apart. AI is a set
of mathematical and statistical techniques giving
computers the ability to perform logical tasks
while emotions can be defined as everything
but a logical thing. Looking at a different angle
and with the latest research in these fields,
this article aims at exploring the unexpected
commonalities between emotions and AI.
A state of consciousness
Emotion is an affective state of consciousness
where joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or many others, is
experienced. Emotion as a state of consciousness
is therefore profoundly Human, making it very
difficult for machines to actually reproduce it.
At least for now.
Nevertheless, if we break down this state of
consciousness we can identify three distinct
parts: the initial state of the person (happy, angry,
calm, excited etc.), the external input (taste, sight,
touch, smell, or sound input) which causes the
change of state, and the specific responses
whether there are conscious or unconscious
(tone of voice, face change, body language etc.).
In theory, an emotion is just a complex biological
algorithm built over millions of years. It is then
theoretically possible to reverse-engineer this
algorithm and build an AI. Emotion AI companies
and scientists are already working on this topic.
The interpersonal communication skills of Humans vary from
extremely good to very poor. As a matter of fact, the message
is alternated at every single step of the communication, from
what we think to what we transmit, from what we transmit
to what the we receive, from what we receive to what we
understand. It can therefore be described as an uncertain
and inefficient process, making it hard to model.
Most Emotion AI are focused on the last step of the chain.
AI can be programmed to identify and detect external
emotional signs at large scale and high speed and analyze
them consistently and without bias. It is the first block to
create an Emotion AI.
This capability gives Robots an edge over Humans for mass
emotion analyses: it is already more efficient to use AI
technology to measure the emotions after a political speech,
an advertisement campaign or a TV news. Companies such
as BeyondVerbal or Affectiva already master the capabilities
to analyze emotions on faces and speeches while Talkwalker
and TheySay offer advanced social media sentiment analyze
capabilities.
What’s next?
Based on the current trends, we can predict that AI applied
to detect emotions will reach new highs thanks to the
ever-growing processing power, augmented by new types
of data such as body sensors, and benefit from the field
of neuroscience to refine algorithms.
The understanding of mass «feelings» is the first step,
the next logical step being the ability to refine the analysis at
the level of the individual. Here too, technology is a useful ally.
Interpretation and Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence is the capability of
individuals to recognize their own emotions and
those of others, discern between different feelings
and label them appropriately, use emotional
information to guide thinking and behavior, and
manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to
environments or achieve one’s goal(s).
BEAST MAGAZINE #15