AI Can Now Read Emotions – Should It?

In its annual report, the AI Now Institute, an interdisciplinary research center studying the societal implications of artificial intelligence, called for a ban on technology designed to recognize people's emotions in certain cases. Specifically, the researchers said affect recognition technology, also called emotion recognition technology, should not be used in decisions that "impact people's lives and access to opportunities," such as hiring decisions or pain assessments, because it is not sufficiently accurate and can lead to biased decisions. What is this technology, which is already being used and marketed, and why is it raising concerns? Researchers have been actively working on computer vision algorithms that can determine the emotions and intent of humans, along with making other inferences, for at least a decade. Facial expression analysis has been around since at least 2003.