Our synthetic companions may soon be able to feel us—emotionally as well as physically
In the quest to develop emotionally intelligent robots, input matters. After all, how could an artificial intelligence ever hope to understand us if it can’t sense the world around it like we can?
In this spirit, Saptarshi Das, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State, has decided to focus his research on artificially replicating our sense of taste.
With a goal, as he puts it in a recent university press release, to see “How could we bring the emotional part of intelligence to AI.”
Tasting the flavors of life
To accomplish their task, Das and his colleagues developed tiny chemical sensors that were able to locate and identify specific molecules emanating from samples of food.
Once detected, they were interpreted by a complex algorithm just as our taste buds send neurochemical signals to our minds.
Das’s system can currently recognize five basic tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami. With some refinements, Das says they may be able to train an artificially intelligent wine taster superior to any human wine taster and who’ll never get tired—or drunk.
What is emotional intelligence?
According to Psychology Today, emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and identify emotions in others.
It generally involves three factors: the identification of specific emotions, the ability to use them for problem-solving, and managing their effects—including reacting to other people’s emotions.
A CMSWire article explains, “Emotionally intelligent AI refers to AI systems that can understand, recognize, and respond to human emotions. This is a challenging task, but it is one that is essential for creating AI systems that can truly interact with humans in a natural and meaningful way.”
Does input from the five senses equal emotions?
While current-generation artificial companions can see and hear, their ability to touch, taste, and smell currently remains limited.
But that is steadily changing. Just as Das and Yoshikazu Kobayashi in Japan and Jung Seung Lee in South Korea are developing synthetic taste components, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne have created a soft, stretchy skin fitted with sensors allowing AI-driven robots to sense when they touch or are touched.
While progress in building synthetic senses is being made, we’ve yet to see a system capable of integrating the full range of human senses. However, that might change in the not-too-distant future as more and more work is done in the field.
Tasting tomorrow’s pleasures
Having access to something akin to biological senses could theoretically help AI-equipped synthetic companions develop something akin to lifelike human feelings.
If so, we might be able to share our lives with emotionally intelligent sexbots that can identify not just our physical needs but our emotional ones as well—and through this, may also encourage both humans and synthetics alike to be better, more sexually fulfilled people.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
