As the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, technology critics keep finding new sources of concern and outrage. One of their latest targets is emotion recognition technology—the use of AI to identify human emotions from facial expressions, voice inflections, body language, and other physical signals. Unfortunately, the EU appears poised to crack down on this technology, which would be a mistake since most of the criticism directed toward it is largely misguided and fails to consider its potential benefits.
The recent rise in opposition to emotion recognition technology has been fueled by the concerted efforts of anti-tech groups seeking to impose sweeping bans or restrictions on AI.
Critics of this technology often make contradictory arguments. Sometimes they argue that the technology is shockingly invasive, effectively reading people’s inner thoughts and feelings without their permission. Other times they argue that the technology does not work, claiming that AI cannot effectively detect human emotions, attempts to do so are pseudoscience, and companies offering this technology are peddling snake oil. But if the technology is not effective, then critics are wrong to claim it violates people’s privacy (and if it violates people’s privacy, then critics are wrong to claim it is not effective).
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