Jenni Stammeier
Yle
Artificial Intelligence can not be cheated with a fake smile. Even a trained human eye remains second when the machine analyzes human emotions.
There is 34.57% fear, 19.37% surprise and 16.04% disgust in Viki's facial expression. It's no wonder. A fridge was just dropped onto him. The face of Köpi also tells everything. He was relieved to follow on the side when his friend was lying down on his back under the hanging refrigerator.
It is not the most common business day for the broadcasting stars of YleX's morning show. They are involved in a project that tests the wonders of science and the sentiment analysis capabilities of artificial intelligence. Valossa AI, an artificial intelligence model scans the facial expressions of the guys several times per second, in real time.
It’s a pace that an human eye is unable to reach. Trained psychologists have traditionally been masters of this skill. In therapy, they observe their patients and, when making a diagnosis, record emotional reactions that may sometimes reveal more than verbal levels.
Human strength is intuition, but the strength of artificial intelligence is speed.
– Going through a video of a therapy session takes a whole day from a human being. But AI tells me in a real-time analysis what happens on the patient's face, says Mika Rautiainen, founder and CEO of Valossa, who developed the emotional analysis model.
Concerning the interpretation of short-term, non-volatile micro facial expressions, a human being makes easily mistakes. Artificial intelligence is already able to interpret human feelings much more accurately than a human being.
– It has been studied how a person interprets his partner's expressions from his own subjective point of view. Often wrong, because their own emotions guide the interpretation and interaction situations. However, short-term expressions lasting a fraction of a second reveal the real repressed emotions, Rautiainen says.
A skillful manipulator may be able to cheat an experienced psychologist, but not an artificial intelligence
The artificial intelligence model that was used to analyze the feelings of Viki and Köpi was taught to recognize six basic sentiments: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sorrow and astonishment, and a neutral facial expression.
The model especially monitors the muscles around the mouth, nose and eyes. Artificial Intelligence recognizes a long period of basic feeling, but also captures unintentional expressions within a fraction of a second.
A skilled manipulator may be able to cheat an experienced psychologist, but not artificial intelligence.
For example, there is a joke battle at the Kajaani Festival Summer, which tests who is able to stay longest without laughing.
– In this particular case, artificial intelligence is set to observe the slightest hints of amusement on the joke battler’s face.
At some point of time, they will be so reliable that they can be allowed to make decisions autonomously
Celebrities are scanning the faces of their fans in fear of stalkers, China to observe dissidents and airlines to serve their customers. Artificial intelligence is also used for emotion recognition already now. And not just for making psychological assessments. Sentiment analysis is also used in consumer research, job interviews, questioning and influential marketing. Everywhere where there is a need to do so-called behavioral profiling.
– In the future, it will be possible to analyze even better more complex emotions and behavior in addition to the six basic concepts. For example, tension, stress, confusion, frustration or self-confidence, Rautiainen says.
Also the body language information will open up completely new dimensions to emotional analysis. Take a look for example, at this video published by Wired magazine, where a former FBI agent explains how to interpret non-verbal communication.
So far, artificial intelligence is only supporting the human interpretation by creating an overall view. But the more the algorithms display this data, the better they will be able to analyze emotions.
– At some point of time, they will be so reliable that they can be allowed to make decisions autonomously. Social robotics, among others, will be first industry to benefit this, says Rautiainen.
See what happens in Viki's emotions when a fridge is dropped onto him:
