E57 | Artificial Empathy with Ben Bland | Pondering AI [Video]

Ben Bland expressively explores emotive AI’s shaky scientific underpinnings, the gap between reality and perception, popular applications, and critical apprehensions.

Ben exposes the scientific contention surrounding human emotion. He talks terms (emotive? empathic? not telepathic!) and outlines a spectrum of emotive applications. We discuss the powerful, often subtle and sometimes insidious ways emotion can be leveraged. Ben explains the negative effects of perpetual positivity and why drawing clear red lines around the tech is difficult.

He also addresses the qualitative sea change brought about by large language models (LLMs), implicit vs explicit design and commercial objectives. Noting that the social and psychological impacts of emotive AI systems have been poorly explored, he muses about the potential to actively evolve your machine’s emotional capability.
Ben confronts the challenges of defining standards when the language is tricky, the science is shaky, and applications are proliferating. Lastly, Ben jazzes up empathy as a human superpower. While optimistic about empathic AI’s potential, he counsels proceeding with caution.

Ben Bland is an independent consultant in ethical innovation. An active community contributor, Ben is the Chair of the IEEE P7014 Standard for Ethical Considerations in Emulated Empathy in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems and Vice-Chair of IEEE P7014.1 Recommended Practice for Ethical Considerations of Emulated Empathy in Partner-based General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems.

View the transcript of this episode here: https://pondering-ai.transistor.fm/episodes/ep57/transcript

Listen to all episodes by visiting: https://pondering-ai.transistor.fm/

Episode highlights
00:00 – Welcome
02:23 – The State of Emotive? Empathic? Science
14:33 – Expectations and Emerging Apps
21:20 – LLMs, Responsible Design and the Problem with Red Lines
29:19 – IEEE Standards and Recommended Practices
39:56 – Ben’s Call for Active Awareness

More about Ben Bland
◉ Ben Bland – https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbland/
◉ IEEE P7014 – https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/7014/7648/
◉ IEEE P7014.1 – https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/7014.1/11609/

Additional resources
◉ SAS Responsible Innovation – https://www.sas.com/responsible-innovation
◉ SAS AI Solutions – https://www.sas.com/ai
◉ SAS Viya – Data and AI Platform – https://www.sas.com/viya

* Disclaimer: All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

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