Caring Computers

1
Caring Computers Emotional Engines

• To what extent can technology have emotions,
  express emotions and elicit emotions?
• Stephen Appleton Becky Wright

2
Aims

• Is it possible to create emotions in artificial
  systems?
• What might it mean for a computer to possess
  emotions?
• What are the potential problems, limitations?
• Can computers express emotions?
• Can people perceive technology as capable of
  feelings?

3
Media Perception

• Suggests emotion is possible in artificial
  lifeforms
• Can have both negative and positive results
• e.g. HAL 9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey
• Child android from AI
• Data from Star Trek
• Computers rational, logical
• Emotions illogical
• Emotions are what separates humans from
  machines!

4
Biological
Definition

• Neurological underpinning
• Neurotransmitters e.g. dopamine, endorphines
• Hormones e.g. cortisol, adrenaline
• Also
• Physiological states e.g. fear response

AI Focus (Boden, 1996)
Cognitive

• Functionalist viewpoint mental operations of
  emotions
• (Boden, 1996)

Conscious

• Awareness of emotions
• Feelings, qualia
• Breadth variety of affective experiences
  (Rolls, 2005)

5
Function of emotions Evolutionary context
(Sloman, 1990 Cañamero, 2002)
Physical limits
Autonomous
Organism

• Cognitive limits
• attention
• memory
• info-processing

Multiple goals
ENVIRONMENT
Relevant data?
Complex
Unpredictable
6
Function of emotions continued

• An emotion is usually caused by a person
  consciously or unconsciously evaluating an event
  as relevant to a concern (a goal) that is
  important the emotion is felt as positive when a
  concern is advanced and negative when a concern
  is impeded.
• (Oatley Jenkins, 1996, p.96)
• What emotions are about is action (or motivation
  for action) and action control
• (Frijda, 1995, p.506)
• Emotions as cognitive appraisers
• Alerts us to goal relevant events/stimuli
• Does this in parallel for all concerns
  (Frijda, 1995)
• Emotions as somatic markers
• Gut feelings
• Facilitate decision-making process
  (Damasio, 1994)

7
Goals Beliefs

• Humans
• 4 Fs
• (Feed, Flight, Fight, Reproduction)
• Natural Selection
• No purpose, intent behind design
• Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins, 1986)

• Machines
• Task oriented goals
• Human programmer
• Specific purpose, intent
• (Rolls, 2005)
• Chinese Room problem

If a computer has no goals or concerns of its
own, can it really be said to possess emotions
about such things? (Sloman, 1990)
8
Computers qualia

• Must a computer be aware of its own emotive
  intentions feelings?
• Some primary emotions can occur prior to
  conscious awareness (Picard, 1997)
• Animal, infant emotions lack of
  awareness/intent (Sloman Croucher, 1981)
• Clinical examples (e.g. repressors)
  (Derakshnan Eysenck,
  1999)
• Consciousness is a prerequisite only to the
  emotional experience and not to the generation of
  the emotion.
• (Picard, 1997,
  p.74)
• We, all of us overanthropomorphize humans, who
  are after all mere machines
• (Brooks, 2005, cited Blackmore, 2003, p.215)
• General Problem Solvers (Newell Simon,
  1958, cited Weizenbaum, 1976)

9
Physiological components of emotions

• Does a lack of biological simulation prevent the
  development of artificial emotions?
• COG synthetic hormones (Brooks, 2005)
• James-Lang theory of emotions (James, 1884
  Lang, 1885)

Emotion

• But.
• Paraplegics
• Cold emotions (Sloman, 1990)

10
ELIZA the Psychotherapist

• Girl My boyfriend made me come here.
• ELIZA Your boyfriend made you come here
• Girl He says Im depressed much of the time.
• ELIZA I am sorry to hear you are depressed
• Girl Its true. I am unhappy.
• ELIZA Do you think coming here will help you not
  to be unhappy
• Girl I need some help, that much seems
  certain.
• ELIZA What would it mean to you if you got some
  help
• Girl Perhaps I could learn to get along
  with my mother.
• ELIZA Tell me more about your family
• (Weizenbaum, 1976, p.3-4)

11

• Emotional impact of ELIZA
• I can imagine the development of a network of
  computer psychotherapeutic terminals, something
  like arrays of large telephone booths, in which,
  for a few dollars a session, we would be able to
  talk with an attentive, tested, and largely
  nondirective psychotherapist.
• (Dr. C. Sagan, 1975, cited Weizenbaum, p. 5)

12
The Media Equation

• Human tendency to treat computers as if they are
  real life, social beings. (Reeves Nass,
  2002)
• Natural, often subconscious
• Evolutionary backdrop
• Emergent emotions (Picard, 1997)
• Human examples e.g. actors, service staff
• Even no communication is a type of
  communication! (Bartneck et al., 2004)
• Blank face analogy

• Ontrack Data-Recovery survey
• User responses
• - Sweet-talk computer
• Physical abuse of computer
• (Sullivan, 2005)

13
Natural emotions

• Baldi, computer-generated head. Facial
  expressions as easy to label as human
  equivalents. (Massaro et al., 2000)
• Synthetic speech recognition of emotional
  content.
• (Cahn, 1990, cited Brave et al., 2005)

However, can take natural look too far.
(Hara, 2000, cited Menzel DAluisio, 2000)

• The Uncanny Valley (Mori, 1970s)
• To be convincing an agents embodiment needs to
  match its skills (Bartneck, 2001)
• Disturbing if fails to meet expectations
  (Picard Klein, 2002)

14
Kismet

• Anthropomophic robotic head, specialised for
  face-to-face interaction
• Infant-like emotional behaviour
• Endowed with basic emotive system
• Goals interact with humans play with
  toys rest
• Emotional expressions

• Speech babble, emotive intent displayed
  through prosody
• Empathy skills

15
Conclusion

• Q. Can computers be programmed with an emotive
  function?
• A. Depends on your definition of emotions
• Emotions are a program within a human robot
  (e.g. Brooks Newell Simon), therefore just a
  matter of adding program to artificial robots.
• Emotions occur at more than just an operational
  level- they are a conscious experience, not a
  simulated behaviour. Computers can never have
  emotions as they can never be conscious.

Are computer emotions real or as if
simulations?...
16
References

• Arbib, M.A. Fellous, J. (2004) Emotions From
  Brain to Robot Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8
  (12), p.554-561
• Bartneck, C. (2001) How Convincing is Mr. Datas
  Smile Affective Expressions of Machines User
  Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction 11,
  p.279-295
• Bartneck, C., Reichenbach, J. Breeman, A.V.
  (2004) In Your Face, Robot! The Influence of a
  Characters Embodiment on How Users Perceive Its
  Emotional Expressions, web page
  http//www.bartneck.de/work/bartneckDE2004.pdf
• Blackmore, S. Consciousness, An Introduction
  (2003), Hodder Stoughton, London
• Boden, M.A. (ed) The Philosophy of Artificial
  Life (1996), Oxford University Press, Oxford
• Brave, S., Nass, C. Hutchinson, K. (2005)
  Computers That Care Investigating The Effects
  of Orientation of Emotion Exhibited By An
  Embodied Computer Agent Int. J. Human-Computer
  Studies, 62, p. 161-178
• Breazeal, C. (2003) Emotion and Sociable
  Humanoid Robots Int. J. Human-Computer Studies,
  59, p.119-155
• Brooks, R. (2005) COG, web page
  http//groups.csail.mit.edu/lbr/humanoid-robotics-
  group/cog/
• Cañamero, L.D. (2002) Designing Emotions for
  Activity Selection in Autonomous Agents from
  Emotions In Humans and Artifacts Trappl,l R.
  Petta, P. Payr, Sabine. (eds), MIT Press,
  Cambridge, US, p.115-148
• Damasio, A. R. (2004) William James and The
  Modern Neurobiology of Emotion from Emotion,
  Evolution, and Rationality Evans, D. Pierre,
  C. (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.3-14
• Damasio, A.R. Descartes Error Emotion, Reason
  and The Human Brain (1994), Putnam, New York
• Dawkins, R. The Blind Watchmaker (2000),
  Penguin, London
• Derakshan, N., Eysenck, M. W. (1999) Are
  repressors self-deceivers or other- deceivers?
  Cognition Emotion, 13, 1-17
• Frijda, N.H. (1995) Emotions in Robots from
  Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science
  Rotiblat, H.L. Meyer, J (eds), MIT Press,
  Cambridge, US

17
References

• Martínez-Miranda, J. Aldea, A. (2005) Emotions
  in Human and Artificial Intelligence Computers
  in Human Behavior, 21, p.323-341
• Menzel, P. DAluisio, F. Robo Sapiens
  Evolution of a New Species (2000), MIT Press,
  Cambridge, US
• Mori, M. (1970s), web page http//www.everything2
  .com/index.pl?node_id1687559
• Oatley, K Jenkins, J.M. Understanding
  Emotions (1996), Blackwell Press, Oxford
• Picard, R.W. Affective Computing (1997), MIT
  Press, Cambridge, US
• Picard, R.W. Klein, J. (2002) Computers That
  Recognise and Respond to User Emotion
  Theoretical and Practical Implications
  Interacting With Computers, 14, p.141-169
• Pinker, S. How The Mind Works (1997) Penguin,
  London
• Reeves, B. Nass, C. The Media Equation (2002)
  CSLI Publications, Stanford, US
• Rolls, E.T. Emotion Explained (2005), Oxford
  University Press, UK
• Sloman, A. (1990) Motives, Mechanisms and
  Emotions from The Philosophy of Artificial
  Intelligence Boden, M.A. (ed), Oxford University
  Press, Oxford p.231-247
• Sloman, A. Croucher, M. (1981) You Dont Need
  A Soft Skin To Have A Warm Heart Towards A
  Computational Analysis of Motives and Emotions,
  web page http//www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/cogaff
  /sloman-croucher-warm-heart.pdf
• Stern, A. (2002) Creating Emotional
  Relationships with Virtual Characters from
  Emotions In Humans and Artifacts Trappl,l R.
  Petta, P. Payr, Sabine. (eds), MIT Press,
  Cambridge, US, p.333-362
• Sullivan, B. (2005) Drop The Mouse and Step Away
  From The PC, web page http//www.msnbc.msn.com/i
  d/7329279
• Weizenbaum, J. Computer Power and Human Reason
  From Judgment to Calculation (1976), W.H.
  Freedman and Company, New York

18
Discussion Questions

• Is Kismets basic emotional system an example of
  real emotions or as if emotions? Could Kismet
  be said to have a partial subset of emotions or
  is it just a simulation model?
• If a machine can ever be said to have its own
  emotions, it arguably needs to be able to develop
  its own goals beliefs. Would we be able to
  recognise empathise with a computers own
  drives emotions or would we end up displaying
  of some form of artificial autism?
• Although the media equation is powerful it is not
  infallible- people can override their natural
  empathic tendencies, as demonstrated by Bartneck
  in his robot replication of Milgrams
  electric-shock experiment. If machines were ever
  capable of emotions, should this change how we
  treat them?