Organized in conjunction with Professor Yu Niiya of the Global and Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Hosei University, this workshop brings together psychologists and other social scientists with members of industry to discuss the implications for affective wellbeing of emerging companion robots equipped with artificial emotional intelligence. The workshop will also feature a Touch & Try Experience with Groove X's newest family-style robot LOVOT. Those outside of Hosei University interested in attending should visit the workshop page and RSVP at the indicated address. 

On July 9 and 12 Model Emotion team members Dan and Hiro participated in two workshops in Tokyo on the social, political, and ethical implications of emerging technologies equipped with emotional AI. Organized by a fantastic team of researchers in the UK and Japan, the workshops brought together specialists across academics, industry, and the public sector. Workshop 1 addressed emotional AI in commercial and civic life, with Workshop 2 engaged more specifically with security and policing. See here for more information on the workshops and on the Emotional AI research project more generally. Also check out Andrew McStay's fantastic overview of emotional AI in his recent book that provided the foundation for much of the workshop content.

Hiro and Dan presented some recent ethnographic findings at the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo, Japan. Our thanks to everyone at the DIJ for facilitating such an engaging discussion.

Dan recently joined a roundtable discussion at AI/SUM 2019, with Ashley Casovan, Director, Digital and Data, Government of Canada; Michael Lanzetta, Director, Applied Machine Learning - Asia, Microsoft; and Charles Ovink, Associate Political Affairs Officer, UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in the Asia and the Pacific.