It can be said that EQ is about becoming more emotion-sensitive.
Well, here's a firm that is ahead of the game and has brought emotional intelligence into artificial intelligence. NICE Systems of Isreal and NJ sells systems for call monitoring.
They're on to something. Their software tracks anger cues (like tone, pitch and number of interruptions) from incoming callers and receiving agents alike. Calls that match the algorithm are brought to a manager's attention, rather than fall through the cracks.
Next? Just imagine:
Emotion-sensitive software may be just a first step to broader monitoring. NICE's Veinstein says the same algorithms can be used to detect fraud. "You're calling your insurance company about a claim—say, that your car's been stolen, but it really hasn't been," he says. "A software agent could identify, in real time, an emotion that correlates with fraud."
Yikes. And after that? I can just imagine a future where individuals carry their own emotion sensitive monitoring devices. Just like disk drive space went from refrigerator-size units to thumb drives, perhaps emotion detection devices will ultimately be carried -- or implanted -- by you and me.
So, when you ask your kids where they've been, your husband why the business meeting lasted so long, or an applicant his education background, you'll be in the know.
Before you know it there'll be courses and chemicals that you can take that will inhibit emotions, so that we all will become a species superior at hiding emotions, fooling and yet confusing everyone. We'll all be like zombies or actors in a freak show.
Sounds like a bad science fiction plot; forgive my digression. Although I may not be far off: Fortune reports that NICE is used by the LAPD.
Read more about NICE systems.
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