Emotional AI in Cities: Cross‐cultural Lessons from the UK and Japan on Designing for an Ethical Life

Citation

Bakir V, Ghotbi N, Ho TM, Laffer A, Mantello P, McStay A, Miranda D, Miyashita H, Podoletz L, Tanaka H & Urquhart L (2022) Emotional AI in Cities: Cross‐cultural Lessons from the UK and Japan on Designing for an Ethical Life. In: Carta S (ed.) Machine Learning and the City: Applications in Architecture and Urban Design. London: Wiley, pp. 621-624. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119815075.ch51

Abstract
Humancentric sociotechnical relationships are key to living well with artificial intelligence (AI). In this chapter, the authors focus on two nations advanced in AI: Japan and the UK. Their methods are diverse, including engagement with emotional AI, policy and municipal stakeholders in the UK and Japan; comparative cross-cultural UK and Japan analysis on how emotional AI impacts commercial, security, and civic contexts; engagement with policing and security forces; examination of governance approaches for collection and use of intimate data about emotions in public spaces; and quantitative and qualitative analysis of diverse citizens' attitudes to emotional AI in cities via national surveys, focus groups, and design fiction workshops. Emotional AI, and wider automated human-state measurement, thus requires ongoing social, cultural, legal, and ethical scrutiny if respect and dignity are to be served.

Keywords
cross-cultural UK analysis; emotional artificial intelligence; ethical scrutiny; humancentric sociotechnical relationships; Japan; public spaces