Machine Learning and Emotions

Abstract

Emotions play a primary role in shaping human intelligence. On the other side, for machines, it is impossible to have forms of knowledge that are not programmed, managed, or piloted by humans. Furthermore, for humans, the process of learning is deeply interwoven with the emotional ground of the living condition. And for machines? We could not improve the attitude of learning in digital devices without enhancing their capacity of sensing. There is a wide consensus among scholars that smart devices can learn emotions at different degrees; however, the rising of the emotional wave in digital devices has not yet been explored. Philosophy can feel the gap by investigating whether machines sense and how. The aim of this article is to indicate a zero degree of emotional power in smart devices: this ability does not exist per se but in the interaction with humans. The Onlife world, where the real and the digital are melted together, provides machines with an environment that makes possible the existence of an enlarged sensitivity. Thus, machines also sense in a specific mode.