We Can Teach AI Virtually Anything — But Can We Teach It to Feel?

In popular science-fiction series Black Mirror, a lonely teenager is given a talking, AI-enabled doll named Ashley Too. The doll immediately recognizes that its new owner is unhappy and its ability to chat empathically and meaningfully soon leads the teenager to regard the doll as her best (and only) friend. As with many of the dystopian technologies explored by the creators of Black Mirror, the emergence of robots that read and react to human emotions may not be too far off. What Can AI Do? Artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of absorbing and processing inconceivable amounts of data; it can beat world-class chess champions at the drop of a hat and its super-cognitive abilities are proving invaluable to organizations around the world.