Experts cautious about Apple's mood-detecting AI research

While Apple is reportedly working on AI technology that can detect mental health states and emotion, some are skeptical. It is unclear and still unproven whether AI is reliable for producing clear diagnoses and uncertain how such "emotion AI" would be used in the field, according to Jorge Barraza, assistant professor of the practice of psychology at the University of Southern California and CSO at Immersion, a neuroscience tech vendor. "When we infer things from emotion AI at the macro level -- meaning that we tend to see patterns at the macro level -- at the individual level it starts becoming a little more dubious," Barraza said. Outside of a social context, "it's unclear how much meaning [emotion] has in order for us to understand what people's psychological experiences are," he added. "Different types of expressions or emoting might have different meanings whether it's in a social context or whether it is not."