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The Affects of Emotional AI When interacting with machines, concerns tend to focus on effectiveness. People want a reminder or suggestion and would like to have it provided efficiently. However, the other side of the dream would be machines responding to people in a more sensitive way, such as an AIRead more
The Affects of Emotional AI
When interacting with machines, concerns tend to focus on effectiveness. People want a reminder or suggestion and would like to have it provided efficiently. However, the other side of the dream would be machines responding to people in a more sensitive way, such as an AI that when a person is anxious calms them, praises when they achieve something, or for that matter, recognizes the realist of a person even when it not conscious on their part. The more complexity to this vision is the AI, would have the capacity to empathize with the person or it would be an imitation of that?
AI Ability
Understanding the modern AI, it is able to interpret and distinguish emotions through tone of voice, facial expression, or even the sentiment of a text. For example:
- AI in customer service is able to identify the aggravation in a caller and as a result, the AI routes the call to a person.
- There are chatbots who identify themselves as a therapist who, to some degree, pulls themselves out of their struggles to be able to offer consolation.
- Companionship AI’s are able to mimic the tone that a person would use to speak to them.
AI’s that possess such capabilities are, in a sense, able to exhibit such human abilities. However, they are an AI pattern in the sense that there is no actual emotion from the AI.
The Difference between Mimicry and Empathy
When it comes head to another being, the empathic ability in people is what attachment and emotional bonding is felt.
Machines do not have feelings other than simulating them. With that being said, there is no emotional connection to “I’m sorry you are going through this,” other than a robotic response to something caring.
The deeper question is: does the difference matter? If a person feels comforted and supported or less alone because of AI, is there no empathy being applied?
Humans face certain risks when adopting the belief in the illusion.
- In many aspects, emotionally intelligent AI is beneficial, such as in mental health, caring for the elderly, or in education, but the risks are worrisome:
- Emotional dependency: AI “friends” are unable to reciprocate, which leaves users in emotional bonds that are unbalanced.
- Exploitation: Biased decisions made by users are disguised as manipulation, which an AI utilized shopping assistant could do to users.
- Encapsulation: Users may replace actual reality with a simulated depiction.
It is like seeing an actor crying on stage. While their display may evoke an emotional response, we all realize at the end of the day, there is no actual suffering. With AI, there is the potential to forget all of that, which isn’t a good thing.
Do AI have feelings is the question?
Some scientists argue that in the more advanced evolutionary stages of AI, empathy will be exhibited when the require sentience.
Emotions are indeed part of the human condition because they pertain to biology and life experience, and biological vulnerability is the linchpin of existence. At what level the technology is now, AI does not feel and only responds.
But here comes the twist; if to empathize is to empathize as to effect (how one feels after an action is done) and not as to cause (why an action is expressed), then perhaps AI does not need to feel to “be sufficiently empathetic.”
The Middle Ground: Augmented Empathy
- Perhaps the true potential of emotional AI is not to replace human empathy, but to augment it. For example:
- An educator using AI to understand particular concept students are struggling with.
- A physician with AI that knows the moment to intervene, and is able to detect, and mitigate, poor prognostic chances of anxiety that may not be apparent until much later.
- An isolated person able to connect with an AI does not dispense with the obligation to attempt to connect with others.
- AI is not overstepping boundaries; it is facilitating the appreciation and attainment of greater levels of empathic concern.
Final Thought
An example of emotional intelligent AI will never “feel empathy” as human beings do, and also, no matter how convincing it will likely be. But that does not mean it has no meaning. Emotional AI, if designed in intelligent ways, may serve also as a mirror, and a bridge, and a base that enables feeling of being cared for and listened to.
The answer is not in whether AI can feel. What may base our utopia is how we choose to apply the artificial phenomenon it emulates.
Will it help us strengthen connections with people, or replace them and leave us lonelier?
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The Hope Behind Decentralization Throughout most of AI history, its dominance has been guarded by a number of tech elitists companies. Owning the servers, data, and the expertise to train massive models, these AI companies monopolized the industry. For small businesses, individuals, or even academicRead more
The Hope Behind Decentralization
Throughout most of AI history, its dominance has been guarded by a number of tech elitists companies. Owning the servers, data, and the expertise to train massive models, these AI companies monopolized the industry. For small businesses, individuals, or even academic institutions, the cost of entry is prohibitively expensive.
Decentralized AI modes serves as a potential breakthrough. Rather than having central servers, models, and data sets, they use distributed networks, where individuals, organizations, and communities can all provide computing power and data. The goal is to remove corporate dominance by placing the AI in the hands of the general public.
The Practical Side of Democratization
Should decentralized AI become a reality, the above scenarios are likely to play out:
In this scenario, AI stops being just another product to be purchased from the Big Tech and starts becoming a commons that we all collaboratively construct.
The Shadows, However, Are Full of Risks
The vision is beautiful; however, decentralization is not a panacea. It has its problems:
To put it differently, while centralization runs the risk of a monopoly, decentralization runs the risk of disorder and abuse.
The Balance is Needed
Finding a solution for this might not necessitate an all or nothing answer. It may be that the best model is some form of compromise. A hybrid structure which fosters participation, diversity, and innovation, but is not held to a high standard of ethical control and open management.
This way, both extremes are avoided:
The corporate AI monopoly problem.
The relapsed anarchy problem of full, unregulated decentralization.
The People Principle
More than just a technology, this discussion is also about trust. Do we trust that a small number of powerful organizations will be responsible enough to guide AI development, or do we trust the open collaborations, with all its risk? History tells us that both extremes of power concentration and unregulated openness tend to let us down. The only question that remains is whether we have the ability to develop the necessary culture and values to enough make decentralized AI a benefit to all, and not a privilege to a few.
Final Comment
“AI and Machine Learning are powerful technologies that could empower people with unprecedented control and autonomy over their lives. However, they also possess the ability to unleash chaos. The impact of these technologies will not be determined by their existence alone, but rather by the frameworks that are put in place in relation to them concerning responsibility, transparency, and governance.
Decentralization, if done correctly, has the potential to be more than just a technological restructuring of society. It could also be a transformative shift in social structure, changing the people who control the access to information in the age of technology.”
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