Report on Emotional AI, Japan & UK: Cross-Cultural Conversations
Wow, with delegates from (deep breath now) the New School for Social Research in New York, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), Northumbria University, University of Cambridge, Keele University, Kyoto University, Freie Universität Berlin, Meiji University, University of Sheffield, Rikkyo University, University of British Columbia University of South Carolina, Chuo University, Japanese Ministry of Defence, Digital Catapult, Sensum, Nvidia, Sensing Feeling, Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, Privacy International, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Internet of Things Privacy Forum, Coventry University, ITD-GBS Tokyo, Doshisha University UK Cabinet Office, Ernst and Young, and (nearly there) independent artists, the team (Vian Bakir, Peter Mantello, Lachlan Urquhart and me [Andy]) explored ethical questions around emotional AI and empathic technologies.
Do have a look at the report (in English and 日本語) for full details (the cross-cultural conversations were genuinely fascinating and important). Key insights here:
Emotional AI: it is not just about emotions, but affect, states, intention and empathy.
Current methods and models of emotion are questionable.
Among industry delegates, there was desire for regulation and ethical guidance to provide business certainty.
Emotional AI will augment other technologies/practices.
There are multiple ethical concerns in UK and Japan, but different focus points.
Japanese personal and social experience of emotional AI differs from the UK.
Japan-UK social, political and legal contexts are substantively different (although arrangements with EU General Data Protection Regulation exist).
Ethical “toolkits” that include law need to go beyond just compliance.
Profiling of bodies in policing has a long history, and emotional AI could be the next focal point.
Understanding of nuances and the specificities of the cultural context is key.
As in the UK, public responses in Japan to the impacts of new technology on civic life vary greatly.
We need to consider respect as well as privacy (in both Japan and the UK).
We need to consider “metaphysical/spiritual” dimensions of cities (to avoid the cybernetic, “cold” conceptions of efficiency dominating discourse).
On emotional AI and disinformation: Consider low political participation among youth in Japan.
