Humans and emotions
Humans are losing the ability to express the complex spectrum of their emotions. We often use UNICODE digital images to convey complex emotions in digital communication. In other words, we rely on emoji to say how we feel.*
Algorithms and emotions
At the same time, algorithms are getting better at reading human emotional states. Algorithms are now perfectly capable of understanding how humans feel and respond with the perfect content.* It's been proven that an algorithm knows you better than your colleagues, friends, even better than your spouse.*
In such world, what happens when an image recognition algorithm is asked to see emoji?
Deep Emoji reveals the grotesque and dream-like world born in the intersection between two systems in evolution: human digital communication and algorithmic sentiment analysis.
Deep Emoji is a project created thanks to DeepDreamGenerator*, which is based on Google Deep Dream, a modified image recognition algorithm that generates and modifies objects in photos.
“..THE IMAGES ALSO HINTED AT HOW DIFFERENT DEEP LEARNING IS FROM HUMAN PERCEPTION, IN THAT IT MIGHT MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF AN ARTIFACT THAT WE WOULD KNOW TO IGNORE.”
— Will Knight, MIT Technology Review
For questions, ideas, or if you would like to write about Deep Emoji, do not hesitate to contact me.
- Reserach on digital footprint (source)
- DeepDreamGenerator (source)
- Will Knight article, The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI (source)
- Facebook knows how you feel (source)
- Have smartphones destroyed a generation? (source)