The commercial applications of Emotional AI have spread across almost all facets of life. Emotion-sensing technology encompasses a range of technologies that can sense, gauge, and respond to the emotional behavior of humans. Through the biometric analysis of a person’s facial expressions, body language, the rate at which they blink, and even their propensity for sweating, Emotional AI tools claim to be able to determine a myriad of things about a human’s mental and physical state. 

Amazon has patented voice-analytic software for its home assistant Alexa allowing it to ascertain the user’s current mood, adjusting its responses in accordance with those findings. Some of the same affect recognition technology is already being used in Amazon’s Halo, a wrist bracelet that can purportedly detect happiness, depression, anxiety, and even the early signs of mental illness by monitoring a person’s voice and biometric data in real-time.

Sony has even developed Aibo, a sophisticated “robot dog” that looks and acts just like a dog, and it is programmed to be able to recognize faces and even perform unique tricks designed by the owner. Beyond this, emotional ai is being embedded into children’s toys. For example, the smart toy, Moxie, is a social companion for children ages 6 to 9 years old. Embodied, the manufacturer Moxie’s makers stress that the machine learning algorithms in the toy are designed to cultivate emotional, social, and cognitive development through play-based learning exercises.