2023-08-26 10:05:38
Dusseldorf The date with “Pepper” doesn’t go as planned. The humanoid robot is easily distracted, turns away as soon as something happens around it, and cannot stand radio silence. This is how bestselling author Kenza Ait Si Abbou begins her book “People Understand – How Emotional Artificial Intelligence Conquers Our Everyday Life”.
She describes the photo shoot for the book cover, where she and “Pepper” stare curiously at the camera. It was more difficult than expected, she reports, she and her team hadn’t counted on Pepper’s “stubbornness”.
Nevertheless, the author was reluctant to say goodbye to him at the end of the shoot. “Pepper” has become part of the team. In her book, Ait Si Abbou addresses a specific side of artificial intelligence (AI): the emotional one. The ability of machines to understand human emotions.
Numbers show that the economic importance of emotional artificial intelligence is increasing. According to the market researcher Markets and Markets, the market volume of technologies for emotion recognition by AI will increase from USD 23.5 billion in 2022 to USD 42.9 billion in 2027. In 2015, the market volume worldwide was only around USD 5 billion. Dollar.
Because there is already AI today that captures biometric data such as facial features or voices and automatically draws conclusions about the emotions of this person. Based on facial expressions, gestures and brain waves, high-resolution cameras and sensors can read feelings, for example the state of mind of customers when they make a complaint. In medicine, for example, diagnostic instruments that read facial expressions are to be used in the early detection of Parkinson’s disease.
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Ait Si Abbou, who drew attention to herself in 2020 with her bestseller “Don’t panic, it’s just technology”, goes far beyond the description of these examples in her book. She weighs up what happens when robots become more and more human, questions the extent to which machines develop the ability for self-reflection – and whether they not only reproduce emotions, but consciously perceive them themselves.
Kenza Ait Si Abbou: Understanding of people.
Droemer Verlag,
München 2023,
256 pages,
20 Euro
In order to feel happiness, to be happy about “a sunrise” or “a freshly blossomed rose,” machines must be able to feel, be aware of this feeling and reflect on it, she writes. “They would have to have self-awareness, the ability to have an ego.” This ability is what makes people special. And machines are far from that. Ait Si Abbou is skeptical that robots will ever reach that point.
Nevertheless, machines would come very close to these abilities. They are currently learning to measure emotions and mimic empathy and are doing better than is commonly thought. But this is not worrying, on the contrary: the better machines know people, the better they can support them. The interaction in everyday life becomes more pleasant.
Combination of two worlds: insight into her biography
Here she gives an insight into her personal story. The author grew up in Morocco, studied electrical engineering and telecommunications in Spain and Berlin, worked as an AI expert at Deutsche Telekom and is now at IBM Germany.
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She is fascinated by both worlds, the deeply human characteristics and the technological capabilities of machines. She also combines these two elements in herself. On the one hand, “the analytical, logical, structured thinking that I associate with a robot,” she writes. On the other hand “the highly emotional African child who grew up in Morocco and then lived in Spain for a few more years”.
It is dedicated to the topic of artificial intelligence in an optimistic and open-minded way. She describes technically complex relationships based on her own experiences as a robotics expert, partner, mother and manager. She critically asks what role people play in relation to machines and how living and working together can be successful.
Machines are not taking jobs away from people, as is often feared, they would only change the world of work, she writes. In many cases, they would even simplify everyday work. While robots would take over the routine tasks, humans would have more time to turn to their own – human – strengths, namely their imagination, curiosity, empathy and innovative spirit.
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