The Nightmare Machine: artificial intelligence gets spooky - CSIRO blog

One of the biological side effects of being a human is the will to live. Luckily for us, one of the ways in which our brain gives the heads up to inform us of potentially dangerous situations is by invoking that little old survival instinct called "fear". Have you ever been stuck sitting next to someone in a cinema, completely unfazed by a horror movie, while you diverted your attention to the closest escape door? Everyone gets spooked by out by different stimuli – whether rational or irrational – clowns, gigantic spiders, or even marshmallows. Since we know that stimuli can evoke varying psychological responses, one group of researchers from our team at Data61 and MIT Media lab, set out to find what unites us in our phobia and terrifies us on a universal scale.