Nonprofit Seeks Diverse Audio Clips to Train More Empathetic AI, But Critics Warn of Risks

A nonprofit called LAION aims to create free, open source AI that can detect human emotions in speech. They are crowdsourcing audio clips for developers to train empathetic AI.

LAION believes detecting nuances in tone and expression will lead to more authentic human-AI interactions. Their goal is AI that truly understands different cultures and languages.

Critics point out risks of emotion detection AI due to lack of universal emotion markers and biases. LAION hopes transparency and community involvement will mitigate risks.

LAION previously created image training sets found to contain offensive content. The group says it prioritizes data quality and authenticity but takes a laissez-faire approach.

Some advocate banning emotion detection tech entirely. LAION comfortable with risks, trusting open development process like Wikipedia's community model.