AI & the 4 Little Trees | More on Emotion Recognition

AI & the 4 Little Trees | More on Emotion Recognition
Vicar Sayeedi
May 17, 2021

As the Coronavirus Pandemic unfolded in early 2020, students at the True Light College, a secondary school for girls in Kowloon, Hong Kong, were required to attend their classes from home. This was a commonplace safety measure introduced by schools in many parts of the world, but unlike most of these other children, the students at True Light were being watched while seated at their desks. An Artificial Intelligence Agent was monitoring and assessing their facial expressions through the cameras embedded in their computers. This Artificial Intelligence Agent is called 4 Little Trees and its designers claim it can read each student’s emotions while they learn. The goal of 4 Little Trees is to help teachers make what has now become ubiquitous distance learning more interactive by responding to an individual student’s reactions as they unfold during the lessons.

4 Little Trees works by measuring micro-movements of the muscles on each girl’s face in an attempt to identify critical emotions including anger, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. The company says the AI Agent can generate comprehensive assessments of each girl’s emotional state for teachers as well as their concentration and motivation. It alerts students and works to restore their attention before they drift too far off track. Vicky Lim, the company founder, is a former teacher and she claims the AI reads a child’s feelings correctly about 85 per cent of the time. 4 Little Trees has become so popular since the pandemic began that the number of schools now using it has increased from 34 to 83.

4 Little Trees uses an algorithm that its designers claim can recognize human emotions and state of mind through the analysis of facial expression, micro-gestures, eye tracking and voice tones. The technology has evolved from facial recognition systems but is considerably more invasive in that it claims to understand how someone is feeling and is also capable of decoding their intentions. It can also predict a student’s personality and it does all of this simply based upon an analysis of facial expressions.

Numerous other companies are working on similar emotion recognition systems in an effort to teach computers how to predict human behavior. American tech giants including Alphabet-Google, Amazon and Microsoft each offer basic emotion analysis, while smaller companies including Affectiva and Hire-Vue are adapting their offerings for the automobile, advertising and recruitment industry sectors.

Disney, for example, is using emotion recognition capabilities to test pilot viewer responses to many films prior to their theatrical release while BMW and Ford have plans to deploy these systems to assess a driver’s state of mind while behind the wheel. In the marketing industry, firms have been using these emotion recognition systems to evaluate audience perceptions of marketing and promotion initiatives for major brands including Coca-Cola and Intel.

But perhaps the most concerning development regarding AI-enabled emotion recognition systems is their increasing prevalence in dystopian applications around the world. Chief amongst these concerns is their use by law enforcement agencies in an effort to identify suspicious individuals. Emotion recognition-enabled cameras, for example, have been installed in Xinjiang in Northwest China where nearly 1.5 million Uighur Muslims are being held in prison camps. Policing experts there have explained that the technology was deployed to rapidly identify potential criminal suspects by monitoring their emotional state.

Although AI emotion recognition technology is being deployed in many disparate applications across numerous industries, its core objective is consistent. Companies and institutions want to make human behavior knowable and predictable at large scale. During the Pandemic the industry has been growing dramatically from just under $20B in 2020 to a projected $37B within five years. Tech companies have been offering their emotion recognition software as a mechanism to observe remote employees and students and are frequently used during remote interviews, as well. It’s rapidly emerging as a technology whose impact is being felt widely.

But as discussed in Podcast #57, most scientists believe there is little to no evidence to show that the technology works as advertised. In fact, current research indicates that although AI-enabled emotion recognition applications might be able to decode facial expressions, this does not consistently translate into what a person is feeling, thinking or what they might do next. The scientific evidence suggests that emotions are expressed in a large number of complex and nuanced ways and this makes it very difficult to reliably infer how someone is feeling from a small, simplistic collection of facial movements. The consensus within the scientific community is that it’s just not possible to infer happiness from a person’s smile, or anger from their scowl, or sadness if they’re frowning, yet this is what the current emotion recognition technology is attempting to do while telling clients that these systems are based upon scientifically conclusive facts.

The scientific facts that underpin emotion recognition software are largely the work of the American psychologist, Paul Ekman who, in the 1960s, travelled to Papua New Guinea to perform a series of experiments in an attempt to validate his hypothesis that all humans, regardless of their circumstance, culture, gender or geography exhibited a uniform set of six universal emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. This research and its claims have been used by a number of companies to train machines in the language of human emotion. Ekman, now elderly and retired, still defends his research. However, he claims conclusions from his research are being misused by companies in their attempt to build commercially profitable businesses and products.






















Vicar Sayeedi is a Computer Scientist and Engineer, a Lecturer and a Consultant. Vicar is also the author of several books. His most recent book is about Artificial Intelligence and is titled, The Génome Affair.

Vicar is most interested in the big questions facing humankind. He is particularly focused on studying at the confluence of the five great disciplines of Human History, Political Science and Thought, International Affairs, Science and Technology. This intersection offers a deep understanding and pedagogically important lessons of how advances in human endeavor have influenced and impacted civilization.

Vicar has been writing books, essays and poetry for many years. For the past 30 years, Vicar has worked in the Technology and Pharmaceutical industries. He is currently a Consultant in the Life Sciences Industry and lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and their three grown children [if they decide to visit during the holidays!]

You can find Vicar’s recent book on AI, The Génome Affair on Amazon at this link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YQ7M9Q7

The most recent episodes of Vicar’s ai & u! Podcast are on YouTube at the following links:

Episode 1 - https://youtu.be/yNYr28jtY_k
What is Artificial Intelligence? What is Human Intelligence?

Episode 2 - https://youtu.be/kAEgDNh1Nwc
How Did We Get Here? Machine Learning, Neural Networks & the AI Lexicon, Exciting AI Agents

Episode 3 - https://youtu.be/3PYCyv1pCgM
Deep Mind - How Powerful is Narrow AI? State Surveillance and Surveillance Capitalism

Episode 4 - https://youtu.be/WvobCMIM_H4
Impact on Societies That Possess Artificial Intelligence Versus Those that Do Not!

Episode 5 - https://youtu.be/4JVpvm4g79g
Surveillance Capitalism, Surveillance State, 4th Industrial Revolution, Bifurcation of Sapiens

Episode 6 - https://youtu.be/e1q2GgcWQok
AI, Blockchain & Quantum Computing - Implications for Global and National Governance

Episode 7 - https://youtu.be/4bDSUvrOdd4
Popular Perceptions of Intelligence, the Seat of Human Intelligence and Implications for AI

Episode 8 - https://youtu.be/3GjHqQZL7Pk
AI - Why Should I care? Plus Exciting Updates from Elon Musk and Neuralink!

Episode 9 - https://youtu.be/enpecqDecC8
AI - Excellence, Innovation & Genius

Episode 10 - https://youtu.be/UsriESlTjdA
Implications for AI as China and the West Decouple

Episode 11 - https://youtu.be/0CpaMb-yw3g
Artificial Intelligence: Ethics, Law & Society

Episode 12 - https://youtu.be/PLzodrLWMq0
AI & Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems

Episode 13 - https://youtu.be/Lm_nrNyJRbA
AI & the Future of Work in Industry 4.0 – the 4th Industrial Revolution

Episode 14 - https://youtu.be/_3E1Mhr_Dt8
Artificial Intelligence and its Implications for Authoritarianism and Democracy

Episode 15 - https://youtu.be/IpMUqHOEd7w
Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness & the Future of Homo Sapiens

Episode 16 - https://youtu.be/mIf7_VMzGKo
AI and its Implications for America's Political Environment

Episode 17 - https://youtu.be/gsMRPnovZGI
Special Episode: Reading From The Génome Affair

Episode 18 - https://youtu.be/UxNxtWDCREM
Artificial Intelligence - Digital Tyranny, Datocracy and the Imitation Game

Episode 19 - https://youtu.be/Db8U0QQWWuY
Does Artificial Intelligence Really Replicate Human Intelligence?

Episode 20 - https://youtu.be/Np18AEq-6DM
AI & Rising Geopolitical Tensions Between China & The West

Episode 21 - https://youtu.be/fOMSvNiixA0
AI & In-vitro Fertilization [IVF]

Episode 22 - https://youtu.be/EQPpRhIV6Kw
AI & Human Intelligence: A Complex Relationship

Episode 23 - https://youtu.be/EAbQ7stY7JQ
AI Upends the World of Structural Biology

Episode 24 - https://youtu.be/Bsb1F8uoBpA
AI & COVID-19: An Extraordinary Contribution

Episode 25 - https://youtu.be/PqL5PCRc8tA
AI, Connectomics & Transhumanism: the Future of Humankind

Episode 26 - https://youtu.be/HI8Zjl8VM8U
Dramatic Upheaval Inside Google's Ethical AI Team

Episode 27 - https://youtu.be/TqWwJYc2GxQ
AI & Cyber Espionage | How Will the Sunburst Attack Affect Our Security?

Episode 28 - https://youtu.be/89BcThqgcfQ
AI & the Rapidly Escalating Threat from Deep Fake Videos

Episode 29 - https://youtu.be/zvOHRMmJNB4
AI, Facial Recognition Technology & The Digital Surveillance State

Episode 30 - https://youtu.be/br4ygfEWdk0
AI & Social Media | The Most Destructive AI We've Ever Seen?

Episode 31 - https://youtu.be/sOy12ii8zwM
The Democratization of AI & The 2021 Maiflower Expedition | Plymouth, England to Plymouth, MA

Episode 32 - https://youtu.be/bixdLL74reE
Sino-American Cold War | A Blessing in Disguise for America?

Episode 33 - https://youtu.be/tTRm312DgMc
AI & the Tyranny of Meritocracy

Episode 34 - https://youtu.be/FpPzC5VP6GM
In the Midst of Chaos and Pandemic | A Big AI Announcement From the Trump Administration

Episode 35 - https://youtu.be/bK3xCBwrG8w
Artificial Super Intelligence – Can We Control It?

Episode 36 - https://youtu.be/Rc60DQ0L86Q
A New America | Hope with a Big Dose of Caution

Episode 37 - https://youtu.be/UBenYYHbYqM
Will AI [Science & Tech] Benefit From a New Cold War with China?

Episode 38 - https://youtu.be/JewJnPywnOU
Will AI Eventually Replace All Other Forms of Government?

Episode 39 - https://youtu.be/ibuJ8vozyqg
Will AI Perpetuate Bias in Employment, Health Systems, Law and Society?

Episode 40 - https://youtu.be/IJYbPfGC-08
AI | Will it be the Bain of Cyber Criminals?

Episode 41 - https://youtu.be/ozrO5_XTYKQ
AI | What Will it Mean for the Future of Work?

Episode 42 - https://youtu.be/kDKapDK-Vb0
AI | A Harbinger for the End of Democracy?

Episode 43 - https://youtu.be/7XeNyE8CA9I
AI & the Life Sciences | Developments in Connectomics & Radiology

Episode 44 - https://youtu.be/mWaPW_UolVo
AI & Geopolitics | Critical Strategic Planning in the Age of China

Episode 45 - https://youtu.be/qOSOc3vJRBk
AI & Humankind | What Might the Future Hold?

Episode 46 - https://youtu.be/atMSV1WAFkg
AI Enabled Surveillance | An Important Tool to Contain Dangerous Personality Traits?

Episode 47 - https://youtu.be/kz7-EDmlGXc
Will AI Favor Authoritarianism or Democracy?

Episode 48 - https://youtu.be/uTvKWQgdOaI
AI | A Key Enabler of Universal Basic Income?

Episode 49 - https://youtu.be/sy48Xqo-3qM
AI & The Future of Government, Industry, Markets &Trade

Episode 50 - https://youtu.be/JU1oGzb5TS0
AI & Surveillance | America’s New Strategy in the Middle East

Episode 51 - https://youtu.be/nOCQjUxLWJY
AI-Enabled Global Government | An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Episode 52 - https://youtu.be/g1VJqiI3HyE
AI & Healthcare | What Will the Future Look Like? Will it be More Equitable?

Episode 53 - https://youtu.be/ie9KAg_kF7Q
AI & Surveillance | The Ethical Dilemma of Facial Recognition Software

Episode 54 - https://youtu.be/ie9KAg_kF7Q
AI & Regulation | Europe is Leading the Way

Episode 55 - https://youtu.be/l-gcYTZMsm8
AI & Consciousness | Will Machines Soon be Sentient?

Episode 56 - https://youtu.be/-8BaouCn9cs
AI & Regulation | Europe Announces New Rules

Episode 57 - https://youtu.be/243zm7aHImQ
AI & Human Emotion Recognition | Is it Inherently Flawed?

Episode 58 - https://youtu.be/rdXllGj8rbo
AI & Autonomous Vehicles | Where are We Now?

Episode 59 - https://youtu.be/EMbqpN5mbqw
AI & the 4 Little Trees | More on Emotion Recognition
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Published on May 17, 2021 13:08
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