The trouble with emotion-reading AI
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it.” That’s a common saying in business, and it tends to be true. But what if the thing you want to fix is your employees’ attitudes? The AI revolution makes it possible to measure emotions and mental states. So why not use it widely and fix what’s broken? That’s the idea behind emotion AI, which is also called “affective computing,” “sentiment analysis,” or “algorithmic affect management.” The idea is to use sensors and AI to detect, interpret, classify, and act upon human emotions in the workplace. Thanks to improvements and breakthroughs in a wide range of technologies (including computer vision, natural language processing, speech and voice analysis, biometrics, machine learning and deep learning, and edge computing hardware) emotion AI is now possible. Many companies have come forward to provide ready-to-use solutions for emotional AI apps, including Cogito, Affectiva, Hume AI, Entropik, and HireVue. The idea is simple: Collect data fro