Could Artificial Intelligence Robots Have Emotional Intelligence?
In short, consciousness is the state of being aware of oneself and one’s environment. In particular, the concept of “emotional state” concludes that consciousness is unique for each person and that consciousness is a biological structure. However, such a naturalistic view is fundamentally questionable; because no approach can objectively prove other people’s consciousness. For this reason alone, it would be wrong to claim that humans are conscious, but Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not and will not be aware.
First and foremost, it is misleading to deny the existence of machine consciousness simply by looking at its mechanics. A better method is to approach consciousness at another level of abstraction. People distinguish between the brain, a physical concept, and the mind, a non–physical concept. Even if we assume a relationship between the mind and the brain, we consider the idea of consciousness to be mind–specific. Neurons in the human brain are not generally expected to have emotional states or be aware of their physical presence. In other words, it would not be possible for someone looking only at neurons to understand that the individual carrying those neurons is conscious.
The same thought may apply to Artificial Intelligence (AI):
By looking at transistors and their functionality, we cannot discern a potentially existing consciousness. Of course, the machine mind will most likely not be comparable to the human mind, but machine consciousness need not be like human consciousness to be convinced of a concept of consciousness. So machine consciousness can also be beyond our imagination or simply very different from ours. Moreover, the lack of proper communication between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI)’s consciousness is beyond our understanding does not justify the non–existence of machine consciousness.
Even if we are convinced that consciousness is linked to the concept of emotional states and therefore should be uniquely human, some current advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research call this argument into question. Research shows that brain simulations are possible. If neurons and their interactions can be fully simulated and the entire human brain’s neural network can be scanned, consciousness can be created in a computer environment.
Besides the ethical questions this technology will raise, brain stimulation has a fundamental impact on the discussion of machine consciousness. Assuming that the mind originates from the brain, it must be concluded that consciousness is also. Therefore, as a direct result of brain simulations, a computer-simulated brain must be conscious. While the simulation itself will never be aware of its representation and environment, the entire artificial brain system will still be conscious.
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has successfully proven itself in cognitive and operational areas, measurement, recognition, calculation, and reporting, be developed emotionally and have an emotional intelligence just like humans? One of our most valuable qualities that makes us human is empathy. But can Artificial Intelligence (AI) be taught to empathize, understand emotion, and act accordingly?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) studies, which started with these questions, have increased since the 1950s. In the past, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies could perform limited and straightforward operations – such as messaging and data sharing – with various programs that would make our lives and jobs easier. But now he can chat with us, make suggestions and even detect our emotions.
Today’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can detect our emotions according to specific characteristics. For example, researchers from North Carolina and Maryland Universities developed an algorithm that can predict people’s emotions with 80% accuracy based on how they walk. However, some Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies require users’ voices to understand their feelings. The most studied subject is Artificial Intelligence (AI)’s ability to identify emotions by analyzing minimal changes in facial expressions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) detects facial expressions as it was taught. However, we may not always express our feelings most appropriately. For example, we can frown when we focus on something and have pain. Or we can cry instead of laughing when we receive happy news. Therefore, facial expressions alone may not be sufficient for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect emotions. Research shows that Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies need to recognize complex facial expressions better.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) does not need to have human-like emotions to perform specific tasks. According to this view, the emotional reactions that artificial intelligence will reflect in the face of particular stimuli (such as the appearance of a teardrop image on the screen when an inspiration related to sadness is shown) will only consist of detecting and imitating the emotion.
Scientists working in developmental robotics aim to transfer people’s cognitive development processes from childhood to youth (for example, decision making) to robots. In this way, it is thought that robots may have emotions like humans in the future. But emotional and cognitive processes are interconnected. Emotions based solely on cognitive processes will therefore be far from reality.
In Which Areas of Our Lives are Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications that Perform Emotion Analysis Used?
- Cogito:
Cogito, another initiative that focuses on sound to understand human behavior and emotions, is differentiated by focusing on the health sector. Working with call centers to develop its technology combining voice and dynamic analysis, Cogito identified 80 million behavioral data points to capture the most important signals.
- Emotient:
Emotient, claiming to lead the future with the motto of Emotional Computing, was born in 2008 at the University of California Machine Perception Lab. Two critical names in facial behavior and Machine Learning (ML) in the Advisory Board of the initiative, Assoc. Dr. Paul Ekman and Terry Sejnowski.
- Affectiva:
Born in 2009 at the MIT Media Lab, Affectiva is one of the leading emotional analytics and intelligence initiatives.
- Beyond Verbal:
Beyond Verbal, another Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up company founded in Israel in 2012, has developed a technology to detect a person’s core emotion by analyzing the tone of voice.
These technologies, especially those aimed at understanding people, are necessary for so many sectors that companies integrate their technologies into. For example, Emotient has turned to the marketing field to define customer demands and customer reactions; Affectiva, on the other hand, keeps its area much more specific and integrates its technology into the automotive sector to prevent possible accidents in the automotive industry.
What is Seed Artificial Intelligence?
Instead of being guided by people in the learning process, the system that can interact with its environment and learn from these interactions is called “Artificial Seed Intelligence.” Seed Artificial Intelligence (AI) is self–learning by design.
You can imagine an Artificial Intelligence (AI) equivalent to a human baby to understand this better. The baby and Seed Artificial Intelligence (AI) will start without being aware of any representations of the environment and itself; only then will they structure their input, formulate their goals, and develop themselves according to their goals and perceptions of the world.
