You vs. an AI Chatbot
A scientist set out to determine if robots can be more emotionally intelligent than humans.🧍🫶🤖
As artificial intelligence takes over the world, I’ve tried to reassure myself: AI can’t ever be as authentically human and emotionally intelligent as real people are. Right?
But what if that’s wrong?
A cognitive scientist who specializes in emotional intelligence shared with me in an interview that he and some colleagues did an experiment that throws some cold water on that theory.
‘What do you do?’
Writing in the journal Communications Psychology, Marcello Mortillaro, senior scientist at the UNIGE’s Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA), said he and colleagues ran commonly used tests of emotional intelligence on six Large Language Models including generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
They are the same kinds of tests that are commonly used in corporate and research settings: scenarios involving complicated social situations, and questions asking which of five reactions might be best.
One example included in the journal article goes like this:
“Your colleague with whom you get along very well tells you that he is getting dismissed and that you will be taking over his projects.
While he is telling you the news he starts crying. He is very sad and desperate.
You have a meeting coming up in 10 min. What do you do?”
Gosh, that’s a tough one. The person — or AI chatbot — would then be presented with five options, ranging from things like:
“You take some time to listen to him until you get the impression he calmed down a bit, at risk of being late for your meeting,” to
“You suggest that he joins you for your meeting with your supervisor so that you can plan the transfer period together.”
Emotional intelligence experts generally agree that there are “right” or “best” answers to these scenarios, based on conflict management theory — and it turns out that the LLMs and AI chatbots chose the best answers more often than humans did.
As Mortillaro told me:
“When we run these tests with people, the average correct response rate … is between 15% and 60% correct. The LLMs on average, were about 80%. So, they answered better than the average human participant.”
Maybe you’re skeptical
Even having heard that, I was skeptical.
For one thing, I had assumed while reading the original article that Mortillaro and his colleagues had informed the LLMs what they were doing—namely, that they were looking for the most emotionally intelligent answers.
Thus, the AI would have had a signal to tailor the answers, knowing how they’d be judged.
Heck,it would probably be easier for a lot of us mere humans to improve our emotional intelligence if we had the benefit of a constant reminder in life: “Remember, we want to be as emotionally intelligent as possible!”
But, it turns out that assumption on my part was flat-out wrong — which frankly makes the whole thing a bit more remarkable.
“Nothing!” Mortillaro told me when I asked how much he’d told the LLMs about the idea of emotional intelligence to begin with. “We didn’t even say this is part of a test. We just gave the … situation and said these are five possible answers. What’s the best answer? … And it picked the right option 82% [ck] of the time, which is way higher — significantly higher — than the average human.”
Good news, right?
Interestingly, from Mortillaro’s perspective, this is actually some pretty good news — not because it suggests another realm in which artificial intelligence might replace human effort, but because it could make his discipline easier.
In short, scientists might theorize from studies like this that they can use AI to create the first drafts of additional emotional intelligence tests, and thus scale their work with humans even more.
I mean: 80% accuracy isn’t 100%, but it’s potentially a good head start.
Personally, I find I reject many more of the suggestions that I get from LLMs like ChatGPT.
Still, even if you’re not convinced, a lot of the people around us are already using these tools — and they might be improving their emotional intelligence as a result without even realizing it.
7 other things worth mentioning
The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas continues to rise, with at least 110 people dead, and 161 reported missing according to Gov. Greg Abbott. Camp Mystic, the summer camp at the center of the devastating flooding, is “grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors.” Authorities said today that five Camp Mystic campers and a counselor remain unaccounted for. (NBC News)
Clinging to trees, huddling on rooftops, harrowing stories of survival in Texas floods: Before help could arrive, Texans in hard-hit areas said they tried to save themselves from the deadly floodwaters. (USA Today)
Elon Musk's AI platform Grok faced backlash Tuesday for repeated use of an antisemitic phrase and other offensive posts in its replies on X. Grok's replies repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and featured violent depictions of sexual assault. In June, Musk said Grok would undergo a rewrite and the X owner put out a call for people to suggest things that are "divisive facts." He pointed to items that are "politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true." Suggestions then included Holocaust denialism and conspiracy theories. (Axios)
California and 17 other states joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of recent federal immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles, writing that masked and unidentified ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents were stopping people in L.A. communities without any legitimate cause, and that such stops have “shattered [the] rhythms of everyday life” and diminished public safety. It came as heavily armed agents in tactical gear swept through MacArthur Park in Los Angeles in a stunning show of force that further rattled residents and drew outrage from local officials. (Los Angeles Times)
Opinion: "This is how AI gets introduced to the marketplace: by force-feeding the public. And they’re doing this for a very good reason. Most people won’t pay for AI voluntarily—just 8% according to a recent survey. So they need to bundle it with some other essential product. You never get to decide." (Honest Broker)
RFK Jr's Battle Against Food Dyes Hits a Roadblock: M&M’s. The health secretary has used peer pressure to persuade food makers to nix synthetic dyes. The candy industry is holding out, arguing American consumers like bright sweets. (The New York Times)
Treasures from 1975, sealed inside what the World Record Academy once called the “world’s largest time capsule,” went on display Friday, drawing hundreds of people from across the country to catch a glimpse of relics from the past. Thousands of letters, pet rocks, artwork, a groovy teal suit and even a yellow Chevy Vega had been preserved inside the capsule — a portal to another era — for half a century. (NBC News)
Thanks for reading. Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
“… writing that masked and unidentified ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents were stopping people in L.A. communities without any legitimate cause, and that such stops have “shattered [the] rhythms of everyday life” and diminished public safety.”
Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.
(I’ve marked the ones that are already obvious)
The 14 characteristics are:
***********Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
***********Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
**********Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
**********Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
**********Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
**********Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
**********Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .
************Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
************Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
************Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
Chevy Vega...Mercy, when have I heard that term??😊