CPDP 2021 Emotional AI and Smart Cities (Japan & UK) video

The team were speaking on ‘Emotional AI and Smart Cities’ at the 14th International Conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) was held on 28th January 2021. The session, which was chaired by Lachlan Urquhart (University of Edinburgh), featured experts from industry, academia and the civil and public sectors to give a well-rounded picture of the use of emotional AI technologies today and in the future.

The main theme of the panel was the use of emotional AI technologies in different fields. Kentaro Ryu (ZMP) gave a presentation on the use case of robotic automobiles in smart cities while also discussing an overview of the data collected by ZMP robots. Hiroshi Miyashita (Chuo University and organiser) discussed the Japanese Super City legislation, the emergence of emotion detection in vehicles and case law relevant to this. Konstantina Vemou (EDPS) presented a European perspective on facial and emotion recognition introducing how it is covered by GDPR and the relevance of Data Protection Impact Assessment. Paul Breitbarth (TrustArc) gave a review of the Dutch perspective with a special emphasis on a Dutch DPA investigation into smart cities. Lena Podoletz (University of Edinburgh) discussed the use of emotional AI in policing and criminal justice.

As well as examining some current, already existing use cases of emotional AI technologies, the panel discussed legislative challenges, existing applicable regulation, potential risks and harms, potential societal implications of real-life deployment and the risks of using biometrics and emotion prediction in particular contexts, such as policing.