[Air-L] emotion detection machine?

Andrew McStay mcstay at bangor.ac.uk
Fri Sep 6 09:01:25 PDT 2019


Lots of issues and questions there, but it's best to avoid generalising about emotional AI/analytics as there are so many forms, e.g. sentiment and multiple form of biometrics. The latter can be read in all sorts of ways too (some clear pseudoscience, but others inferences are more meaningful).

I'll desist from spamming the list with books and papers, but check my site<https://emotionalai.org> and do reach out if you have any specific questions 🙂

Andrew McStay
Professor of Digital Life
Director of Media and Persuasive Communication Network (MPC)
School of Music and Media
Bangor University
2019 William Evans Fellow, University of Otago, NZ

Book: Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media<https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/emotional-ai/book251642>
Project site and reports: EmotionalAI.org<http://emotionalai.org/>
Other books, bits and papers: here<https://bangor.academia.edu/AndrewMcStay>

T. +44 (0)1248 382740
Tw. @digi-ad<https://twitter.com/digi_ad>



Message: 1
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2019 21:07:42 +0000
From: Fiona Martin <fiona.martin at sydney.edu.au>
To: "air-l at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] emotion detection machine?
Message-ID: <1BA31177-457D-40EC-A53E-6D9AC704A107 at sydney.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Dear Charles,

Sally raises some excellent questions about the accuracy of sentiment analysis.  It is a blunt tool.

The categories used are likely drawn from Plutchik?s classic ?Wheel of Emotions?:

Plutchik, Robert. 2003. Emotions and Life: Perspectives from Psychology, Biology, and Evolution. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

Plutchik, Robert and Henry Kellerman eds. 1980. Emotion: Theory, research, and experience, Vol. 1. Theories of Emotion. New York: Academic Press.

Kind regards,
Fiona


DR FIONA MARTIN
Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media
Department of Media and Communications | School of Letters Arts and Media | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
New book: Sharing News Online <https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030179052> (Palgrave Macmillan, July 2019)

ARC Discovery 2019-2022 Platform Governance: Rethinking internet regulation as media policy <https://research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/projects/platform-governance/>
Facebook Content Policy Research on Social Media Platforms award: Regulating Hate Speech in the Asia Pacific


Rm S2.20, Lvl 2 John Woolley Building A20 |
The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
T +61 2 9036 5098  | F +61 2 9351 5444 | M +61 428 391 122
E fiona.martin at sydney.edu.au <https://webmail.sydney.edu.au/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx>
TW @media_republik
W https://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/staff/profiles/fiona.martin.php


CRICOS 00026A
This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments.
Please think of our environment and only print this e-mail if necessary.


------------------------------

    Message: 12
    Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2019 13:11:18 -0700
    From: "Dr. S.A. Applin" <sally at sally.com>
    To: "Charles M. Ess" <c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
    Cc: air-l <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
    Subject: Re: [Air-L] emotion detection machine?
    Message-ID: <FB3066F7-6431-43FB-90F1-A34C24307C59 at sally.com>
    Content-Type: text/plain;   charset=utf-8

    Dear Charles (and List),

    I see this as an ethics issue.

    How reliable are ?emotion analysis? tools? How would outcomes from them be used?

    As you say, there is a lack of clarity in some in terms of ?explaining emotional categories.?  To me, this signals (along with obvious knowledge about the limitations and problems with algorithms), that there is opportunity here to be very, very, very wrong about people?s opinions, and any algorithmically interpreted ?emotional? state.

    For example, how would one interpret or finesse ?frustration,? vs ?anger??  The written word is contained within a language. Not all commenters will be native speakers to that language, and not all native speakers have the language tools required (even within their own language) to adequately express themselves, even in the best of times. What makes anyone think an algorithm would do better at this than a human trained in qualitative methods and with cultural and media and language knowledge?

    There is way too much margin of potential error here for this to be automated, or  ?useful.? It is much more likely that things will be assumed incorrectly by limited algorithms in the first place.

    Furthermore, does your student see any problem with this exercise? That their tool analysis might get it very wrong? That the wrong might lead to assumptions or outcomes that are harmful to entities, people, governments?

    What safeguards are in place for wrong assumptions and outcomes?

    Kind regards,

    Sally





    Sally Applin, Ph.D.
    ..........
    Research Fellow
    HRAF Advanced Research Centres (EU), Canterbury
    Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing (CSAC)
    ..........
    Research Associate
    Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)
    Yale University
    ..........
    Associate Editor, IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
    Member, IoT Council
    Executive Board Member: The Edward H. and Rosamond B. Spicer Foundation
    ..........
    https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/JR-OCr8DLRtqVW9vtgnIZ0?domain=posr.org
    https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/5UVtCvl0PoC9NRX6fLIk4l?domain=sally.com
    I am based in Silicon Valley
    ..........
    sally at sally.com | 650.339.5236



    > On Sep 5, 2019, at 3:52 AM, Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no> wrote:
    >
    > Dear colleagues,
    >
    > One of our students is wanting to analyze emotional content in in the comment fields of a major newspaper vis-a-vis specific hot-button issues.
    >
    > She has a good tool (I think) for scrapping the data - but she is stymied over the choice of an emotion analysis tool. She has looked at Senpy (https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/w8BUCXLKZoiQ5WJYtDwmjf?domain=senpy.gsi.upm.es) and  Twinword <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/BcVhCYWL1vi71w8xiV08Cd?domain=twinword.com> - the latter seems the most accurate, but it is also expensive.
    > She has recently discovered DepecheMood emotion lexicons (Staiano, J., & Guerini, M. (2014). Depechemood: a lexicon for emotion analysis from crowd-annotated news. arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.1605.) - but this suffers from a lack of clarity in terms of explaining its emotional categories: awe, indifference, sad, amusement , annoyance, joy, fear and anger.
    >
    > For my part, I am entirely clueless.  Any suggestions that she might pursue would be greatly appreciated.
    >
    > best,
    > - charles ess
    > --
    > Professor in Media Studies
    > Department of Media and Communication
    > University of Oslo
    > <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/k0fhCZYM2VF640GNFx8ASL?domain=hf.uio.no>
    >
    > Postboks 1093
    > Blindern 0317
    > Oslo, Norway
    > c.m.ess at media.uio.no
    > _______________________________________________








Mae croeso i chi gysylltu gyda'r Brifysgol yn Gymraeg neu Saesneg

You are welcome to contact the University in Welsh or English

Rhif Elusen Gofrestredig 1141565 - Registered Charity No. 1141565

Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dilewch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio a defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Bangor.

This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of Bangor University. Bangor University does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the Bangor University Finance Office.


More information about the Air-L mailing list