Computers, robots, and wearable technologies are being designed with the abilities to sense, recognize, and respond intelligently to human emotion. In some cases, robots are created in the image of their maker, and appear to have emotions. Are emotions the last thing that separates machines from being human? What are ways that “Emotion AI” can be used for good, and are there cases where we want to see its use banned? This talk will demonstrate some of the latest advances in affective technologies and propose principles for its ethical use.

Bio

Professor and director of Affective Computing Research at the MIT Media Lab, Rosalind Picard wrote the book Affective Computing, which outlines how to give machines the skills of emotional intelligence, and is credited for launching the growing field of Affective Computing. The author of over 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications, Picard co-founded two companies that have taken affective computing inventions to market: Empatica, providing the first AI-based smart watch cleared by FDA, used for monitoring neurological and physiological events, and Affectiva, enabling measurement of facial and vocal expressions. Picard serves as MIT’s faculty chair for MindHandHeart, a campus-wide wellbeing initiative, and as chief scientist for Empatica. She has received numerous honors and awards including one of the highest accorded to an engineer: election to the National Academy of Engineering, recognizing her contributions to wearable and affective computing.