IBM's artificial intelligence technology just got better. IBM's Watson has received a significant emotion-detecting upgrade, enabling it to understand emotions and respond to you based on how you are feeling.
Watson now includes a much-improved Tone Analyzer. Through this, the AI can now detect a multitude of emotions in your writing, including sadness and joy. This means that once you tell somebody that you are okay when you are really sad, the technology is now able to detect your true emotion.
Instead of looking at each word, Tone Analyzer studies whole sentences. This API also listens to the way users speak and scans their input for emotions.
Apart from Tone Analyzer, Watson now includes two more APIs: Emotion Analysis and Visual Recognition.
Emotion Analysis – this API helps users in discovering the emotion of people they're chatting with. It will make it possible for users to know if the person they're talking with, for instance, is not happy.
Visual Recognition – this API does not only recognize a specific thing, which other image scanning services already do; rather, it can tell which particular type of 'shoes' they are, for instance.
IBM is also offering its text-to-speech engine, dubbed Expressive TTS service, which features emotional capabilities. This engine provides responses in a correct tone. When users are angry, for example, the AI is not going to answer back in an upbeat voice.
The Tone Analyzer, Emotion Analysis, Visual Recognition along with Expressive TTS service are part of Watson’s open platform. These are available through the Watson Developer Cloud on Bluemix.
Engadget's Jon Fingas believes that it is apparent that IBM Watson "is becoming a full-fledged intelligent agent, not just a business tool or clever chef."
In a related news, a new dating app called Connectidy wants to take advantage of IBM's AI in boosting users' dating experience.
The app works by helping users determine what they are trying to find in a partner and how they may interact with them. Co-founder and president of Connectidy Dineen Tallering said that the app evaluates the text to provide you your Big Five character traits: agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness to experience.
"It's a very detailed personality assessment of who you are," said Tallering. "We've basically given you your profile, so we've eliminated that awkward existence for people."
