Welcome To The Emotion Economy, Where AI Responds To--And Predicts--Your Feelings Fast Company

"Thank you, Charlotte," the personal assistant AI known as Adam responded. "I'll be sure to pass that along to the developers. "Would you be interested in some hot chocolate? There's a new café two blocks away that's said to have some of the best in the city." The young executive laughed lightly. "Adam, it's as if you could read my mind!" Welcome to the age of artificial emotional intelligence, an era in which our technologies are increasingly able to read, interpret, predict, and even influence our emotions. From the early stage, we find ourselves at today, these programs, robots and other devices will grow to become our friends, confidants, and possibly much more–like the film Her brought to life. In the process, they will transform nearly every aspect of our relationship with technology, beginning with the world of commerce, the driver for all of this change. Why would we do this? Because emotions are at the heart of the human experience. Before there was technology, before there ...