Emotion AI: Separating Facts from Fiction [VIDEOS and SLIDES]

Lisa Feldman Barrett kicked off our 2024 Seminar Series with a virtual seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024 with the Expeditions in Experiential AI Seminar “Emotion AI: Separating Facts from Fiction.” Lisa discussed her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience, as well as a radically new scientific understanding of what emotions are, how they work, and implications for emotion AI efforts.

Full Abstract

This address describes recent scientific discoveries about the nature of emotion with implications for emotion AI efforts. Lisa explored a radically new scientific understanding of what emotions are and how they work, supported by evidence from psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology: Emotions are not built into your brain from birth, but are built by your brain, instance by instance, as needed.

Flip through the slides from the talk here:

See the extended Q&A with Lisa here:

Biography

Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, is among the top 0.1% most cited scientists in the world for her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience. She is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University. She also holds appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is Chief Science Officer for the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior.

In addition to the books Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain and How Emotions are Made, Dr. Barrett has published over 275 peer-reviewed, scientific papers appearing in Science, Nature Neuroscience, and other top journals in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, as well as six academic volumes published by Guilford Press. She writes regularly about science in the popular press, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Scientific American, BBC Science Focus, Popular Science, Nautilus, BigThink, Cosmopolitan,  Time magazine, MIT Technology Review, and more. Her popular TED talk has been viewed over 6.5 million times.

Dr. Barrett received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award for her revolutionary research on emotion in the brain. These highly competitive, multimillion dollar awards are given to scientists of exceptional creativity who are expected to transform biomedical and behavioral research. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019, the APS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, and the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in Psychology in 2021.

Among her many accomplishments, Dr. Barrett has testified before Congress, presented her research to the FBI, consulted to the National Cancer Institute, appeared on Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman and The Today Show with Maria Shriver, and been a featured guest on public television and podcast and radio programs worldwide. She was president of the Association for Psychological Science in 2019–2020 and co-founded the Society for Affective Science. She is also an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada.

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