Emotional Robots

Emotional Intelligence (EI) describes the ability, capacity, skill or, in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived ability, to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups.^[1] Different models have been proposed for the definition of EI and disagreement exists as to how the term should be used.^[2] Despite these disagreements, which are often highly technical, the ability EI and trait EI models (but not the mixed models) enjoy support in the literature and have successful applications in different domains.

-Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence)


^{I know, I know..... AI is not exactly a new concept these days, but the level of "realism" AI is approaching is becoming impressive. The daunting complexity of creating a truly "intelligent" machine makes AI a field of study that has virtually infinite room to grow. Emotion is a human phenomenon that we are still trying to fully understand because it stems from our deep comprehension and contemplation of the world around us. Our past experiences allow us to empathize with one another's emotional states. The fact that AI is approaching a level of emotion shows not only that we are closer to understanding our own emotions, but that we are coming closer to creating an artificial "thinking" mind. We are already capable of making machines with an effective but very linear system of reasoning, but perhaps one day we can program an AI that can "calculate" things such as ethics or aesthetics even better than humans.}