AI has undoubtedly surpassed our expectations. It has created smart bots, self-driving cars, virtual communication, and Natural Language Processing. Additionally, Artificial Intelligence has conquered almost every industry, from automotive to healthcare. However, there is one sector where the technology is still lagging behind; that’s in regard to human emotions! Even though data scientists and software engineers are working around the clock to teach machines empathy and compassion, their attempts have been unsuccessful. In today’s post, we’ll be exploring whether AI can feel human emotions and if this might be possible in the future.
The Split in Opinions
In this debate, there are two trains of thought. Some believe AI will someday understand and replicate the concept of human emotions and replicate it. Then, others staunchly believe this will never happen. They argue that machines lack compassion, empathy, and other crucial human emotions, not to mention that AI does not reason based on logic.
On the contrary, AI is showing promising results with recent technological developments. This fuels the belief of the other camp, which claims that AI will be able to feel human emotions in the future. Where do you stand in this debate? Let’s dig a little deeper so that you can make an informed choice.
Why AI May Never Understand Human Feelings and Emotions
The short answer to the above question is NO. AI can not feel human emotions. It may replicate some of them but can’t simulate these feelings. Emotions are a biological reaction to external stimuli. AI and machines generally do not possess the consciousness to feel these emotions. Here are some detailed pointers for why we think AI may never understand human feelings.
The Structure of the Human Brain and Neuroscience
The main reason why AI cannot feel human emotions is based on our understanding of neuroscience. To date, scientists are still puzzled by how neuroscience programs the brain to feel emotions. As long as neuroscience remains a mystery, scientists won’t be able to program machines to portray human emotions.
So far, we have been able to separate different parts of the brain that are responsible for various emotions. For instance, it’s in the public domain that the amygdala controls negative emotions such as fear or sadness.
This part is interconnected with others, like the prefrontal complex and the hippocampus. In simple words, emotions are quite complicated. Although we feel them every day, even experienced psychologists have trouble understanding them.
AI Devices Lack Advanced Sensory Organs
Besides the complexity of the brain and neuroscience, AI can’t feel human emotions because it lacks advanced sensory organs. When a bear runs after you, your brain immediately kicks into flight mode. If a bear started running at Alexa or a Tesla, would it run in the opposite direction, screaming for help? Probably not! At this period, our technological capabilities are very limited. Therefore, not even skilled scientists can incorporate sensory organs into machines or Artificial Intelligence.
The Hope
While most tangible indicators show AI might never understand human feelings and emotions, there is a branch of Artificial Intelligence known as Affection AI that trains machines to mimic certain emotions like empathy or sadness.
Thanks to this branch of Affection AI, chatbots such as Microsoft’s Tay were designed to comprehend a teen girl’s conversation and her speech patterns to mimic human emotion. In the beginning, this chatbot executed this task perfectly before it was hijacked by internet trolls and started hurling insults and racist remarks. Since then, plenty of chatbots such as ELIZA, Replika by Eugenia Kuyda, and PARRY have been launched to mimic human emotion, but the results have always been substandard.
Is AI Understanding Human Emotions Good or Bad?
As we wait to see if a time will come when AI will understand human feelings and emotions, let’s think about it: Will that be positive for humans? Well, in sectors such as mental health, an AI chatbot that can feel human emotion would provide around-the-clock therapy and support. This would also be beneficial to customer service.
AI that feels human emotions would be able to understand a person’s mood and provide more natural conversations. For this to work, AI must incorporate more than just text data. Audio-visuals would play a crucial role in AI evaluating a human’s tone and facial expressions.
Though it’s possible to judge a person’s feelings from text, audio, and visuals that provide a richer emotional landscape, thousands of freelancers would be needed to train AI to recognize emotions from different demographics. This, perhaps, would counter the belief that “AI is here to take over human jobs”.
On the negative side, enthusiasts believe we shouldn’t be so excited about the idea of AI ever understanding human emotions. To begin with, there is a chance that AI might be biased in portraying emotions based on demographics. If trained by the wrong people, it could associate negative feelings with people of certain ethnicities. There is also the risk of misinterpreting emotions that might lead to serious problems later.
Conclusion
At the moment, AI can only simulate and partially recognize emotions. However, it can not feel them. Will AI be able to feel emotions in the future? That remains unclear! Like all technologies, AI has limitations, and it seems emotions are one of them. No matter how much data scientists try to portray the illusion of emotions in AI, these machines cannot feel consciousness. Should researchers find solutions to the above problems, AI would be capable of feeling human emotions.