What happens when AI is your therapist?

THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE?: AI-powered health apps are proliferating. The mental stresses of the pandemic have fueled a boom in wellness devices that track speech, facial expressions and even eye blinks to assess emotional states. This kind of "affective computing" can replicate therapy or detect depression when in-person care isn't available -- and even remotely monitor workers and children. But the burst of interest is heightening concerns about whether there's enough government oversight of the technology, known as "emotion AI". Future Pulse spoke about the tension points with Alexandrine Royer, a doctoral candidate studying the field and the digital economy at the University of Cambridge and a student fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence.