An AI - Emotion-Recognition System - Can Track How - Happy - Chinese People Are at Work

01/07/2021 An AI 'Emotion-Recognition System' Can Track How 'Happy' Chinese People Are at Work
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'Every smile you fake' — an AI emotion-recognition system can

assess how 'happy' China's workers are in the office
Cheryl Teh Jun 15, 2021, 10:50 PM
A display of surveillance cameras at an international exhibition on public safety and security in Shanghai.
Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images
A Chinese AI emotion-recognition system can monitor facial features to track

how they feel.
Don't even think about faking a smile. The system is able to analyze if the emotion
displayed is genuine.
https://www-insider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.insider.com/ai-emotion-recognition-system-tracks-how-happy-chinas-workers-are-2021-6?… 1/14
The company behind the system counts Huawei, China Mobile, and PetroChina
among its clients, though it is unclear if these companies have purchased the
emotion-recognition system for use in their offices.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
You've worked twelve hours and are feeling tired and frustrated, but you force
yourself to keep a neutral expression on your face. You're too worn out to keep
typing, but you can't yawn, grimace, or frown because an all-seeing eye is watching
you. The eye charts your emotions, and — make no mistake — it will tell on you if
you look a little too angry.
This is not the plot of a science fiction movie or the next "Black Mirror" episode. But
it might already be the reality for some Chinese employees working for major tech
corporations.
An AI emotion-recognition system developed by Chinese company Taigusys can

detect and monitor the facial expressions of multiple people and create detailed
reports on each individual to track how they're feeling. Researchers say, however,
that systems like these are not only often inaccurate, but that at baseline, they're
also deeply unethical.
The system was first reported on this May in an investigative piece by The
Guardian. Taigusys lists multinational corporations like Huawei, China Mobile,
China Unicom, and PetroChina among its major clients, though it is unclear
whether these companies are licensing this particular product for use.
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Insider contacted Taigusys and the 36 companies on its client list, none of whom
responded to requests for comment.
How does it work?
A mock-up of the emotion-recognition system displayed on Taigusys's corporate website. Taigusys
Taigusys claims on its website that its system helps to "address new challenges" and
can "minimize the conflicts" posed by emotional, confrontational behavior.
This is done through an AI system, which can run the expressions of multiple
individuals through an assessment at once. An algorithm then assesses each
individual's facial muscle movements and biometric signals and evaluates them on
several scales outlined by Taigusys.
"Good" emotions the program looks for include happiness, surprise, and feeling
moved by something positive. The AI system also checks the person's face for
negative emotions, like disgust, sorrow, confusion, scorn, and anger. Neutral
emotions — like how "focused" one is on a task — are considered too.
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Taigusys claims that its software is so nuanced it can detect when someone is faking
a smile.
The emotion-recognition software says it can also generate reports on individuals to

recommend them for "emotional support" if they exceed the recommended markers
for "negative emotions."
Here, a mock-up shows how Taigusys' emotion-recognition system can chart the "level of happiness" on a
person's face. Taigusys
"Based on the analysis of one's facial features, the system can calculate how
confrontational, stressed, or nervous an individual is, among other metrics. We can
also analyze the person's emotional response and figure out if they are up to
anything suspicious," said the company in its product description of the system.
Activists urge caution with deploying such programs, highlighting ethics

and human rights issues
Human rights activists and tech experts Insider spoke to sounded the alarm bell
about deploying such programs, noting that emotion-recognition systems are
fundamentally rooted in unethical, unscientific ideas.
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Riachuelo
Vidushi Marda, senior program officer at British human rights organization Article
19, and Shazeda Ahmed, Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information,
told Insider that their joint research paper on China's emotion-recognition market
published this January uncovered a staggering 27 companies in China that were
working on developing emotional recognition programs, including Taigusys.
"If such technology is rolled out, it infringes on the ethical and legal rights of
employees in the workplace. Even in the premises of a privately-owned workplace,
there's still an expectation of privacy and dignity, and the right of employees to act
freely and think freely," Marda added.
She noted that the emotion-recognition systems are built on pseudoscience and
based on the tenuous and scientifically unproven assumption that facial
expressions are linked to one's inner emotional state.
"There is no way to 'optimize' these technologies to be used ethically because the

assumptions that they are built upon are themselves unethical," said Marda.
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Riachuelo
What's more, posits Ahmed, intensive Panoptic surveillance imposed by such

technology could lead to self-censoring and policing their behavior to game the
system.
Daniel Leufer, Europe policy analyst at digital civil rights non-profit Access Now,
told Insider that even if it could work, despite its shaky scientific basis, emotional
recognition programs constitute a "gross violation" of several human rights,
including one's right to privacy, free expression, and freedom of thought.
"Worst of all, all of these violations potentially occur even if emotion recognition is
not scientifically possible. The very fact that people believe it is, and create and
deploy systems claiming to do it, has real effects on people," Leufer said.
"Simply don't use it, don't develop it, and don't fund it. It's scientifically shaky, it
violates a range of fundamental rights, and it's also just downright creepy," he said.
$100,000 Spoof Bounty
Program
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"A society that monitors our emotions is a society that will reward some and
penalize others. Are certain emotions predictive of crime or low productivity?"
noted Rob Reich, professor of political science at Stanford and co-author of a
forthcoming book on ethics and technology, "System Error: Where Silicon Valley
Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot."
"Big Brother will be watching and equipped to enforce an emotional regime. The
result is a systematic violation of privacy and degradation of humanity," Reich said.
"It is never ethical for other people to use AI systems to surveil people's emotions,
especially not if those doing the surveillance are in a position of power in relation to
those surveilled, like employers, the police, and the government," Leufer added.
This may be why, thus far, prisons are among the only workplaces that have openly
admitted to using the program.
The Guardian spoke to Chen Wei, a general manager at the Taigusys, who told them
that the company's systems are installed in 300 prisons and detention centers
around China. The system is connected to around 60,000 cameras in such facilities
and has helped keep prisoners "more docile," said Chen.
With the system, the authorities can monitor people in real-time, 24 hours a day.
"Violence and suicide are very common in detention centers. Even if police
nowadays don't beat prisoners, they often try to wear them down by not allowing
them to fall asleep. As a result, some prisoners will have a mental breakdown and
seek to kill themselves. And our system will help prevent that from happening,"
Chen told the Guardian.
Beyond the ethical implications of emotion recognition software, many

doubt the technology is refined enough to paint an accurate picture
Desmond Ong, assistant professor at the department of information systems and

analytics at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing, believes
that the software could potentially help with "identifying dangerous life-and-death
situations like fatigued, inebriated, or mentally unwell pilots and train drivers."
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But, he added, "it could also be used to unfairly penalize or inhumanely optimize
employee performance, like making 'empathy' a key performance indicator for call
center employees."
Ong noted that systems like the one developed by Taigusys also undermine the
complexity of human emotional expression by reducing people to the expression of
basic emotions.
Besides, it's unclear how well AI would be able to understand how complex
emotions really are.
Sandra Wachter, associate professor and senior research fellow at the University of
Oxford's Oxford Internet Institute, told Insider it would be unlikely for an algorithm
to accurately understand humans' highly complex emotional state via facial
expressions alone.
https://www-insider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.insider.com/ai-emotion-recognition-system-tracks-how-happy-chinas-workers-are-2021-6… 10/14
She noted, for example, how women are often socialized to smile politely, which
may not be a sign of happiness or agreement.
"Applying emotion-recognition software to employees also poses a threat to

diversity because it forces people to act in a way that adheres to an algorithmic and
artificial 'mainstream' standard, and so infringes on peoples' autonomy to express
themselves freely," Wachter said.
"We can see a clash with fundamental human rights, such as free expression and the
right to privacy," she added.
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01/07/2021 An AI 'Emotion-Recognition System' Can Track How 'Happy' Chinese People Are at Work

'Every smile you fake' — an AI emotion-recognition system can

Cheryl Teh Jun 15, 2021, 10:50 PM

A Chinese AI emotion-recognition system can monitor facial features to track

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

An AI emotion-recognition system developed by Chinese company Taigusys can

Botik com até 30%Off

How does it work?

A mock-up of the emotion-recognition system displayed on Taigusys's corporate website. Taigusys

Botik com até 30%Off

The emotion-recognition software says it can also generate reports on individuals to

Activists urge caution with deploying such programs, highlighting ethics

"There is no way to 'optimize' these technologies to be used ethically because the

What's more, posits Ahmed, intensive Panoptic surveillance imposed by such

$100,000 Spoof Bounty

Beyond the ethical implications of emotion recognition software, many

Desmond Ong, assistant professor at the department of information systems and

$100,000 Spoof Bounty

"Applying emotion-recognition software to employees also poses a threat to

NOW WATCH: Popular Videos from Insider Inc.

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