Rosalind Picard

By: Fea Morgan-Curtis

Dr. Rosalind Picard received her BS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and then went on to MIT to get her MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.[1] After receiving her degrees, she worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories, mostly in the fields of digital signal processing and image compression, and then returned to MIT to join the faculty of the MIT Media Lab, where she started her work with Affective Computing.[2]

In 1997, Dr. Picard published her revolutionary book entitled Affective Computing, creating the field of the same name and causing a wave of technological ethics conversations to ensue.[3] At its core, affective computing encompasses the belief that the massive amount of technology in the field of artificial intelligence should be used for bettering the human life of everyone, instead of causing us to become a sedentary, isolated, unhealthy society.[4][5] Currently, the Affective Computing website boasts a wide range of projects, everything from early diagnoses of depression, to working with people who have issues with or require help with communication, to even helping robots and computers become capable of processing human emotional feedback.[6]

From this idea of Affective Computing and the groups that now work with it, Dr. Picard has created multiple initiatives and groups, including Advancing Wellbeing and Empatica. Advancing Wellbeing is an initiative at MIT Media Lab where they are working to acknowledge and do their best to fix their contribution to society’s addiction to technology, which has caused the sedentary and isolated society mentioned above.[1] The program

mainly works in education and mentorship for younger generations, seeing as the younger generations have been born into this technology fueled world and may need help navigating through all of it so that they can live a healthy and happy life.[2] Empatica, on the other hand, is a company that is using advances in the artificial intelligence community to help those with epilepsy detect convulsion episodes and alert caregivers/loved ones when they are about to happen/happening.[3]

From all of this, it is clear that Dr. Picard has had a massive impact on the artificial intelligence community. She started a movement to reevaluate our relationship with technology and how we use the powers that this technology brings. She continues to work to ensure that society’s relationship with artificial intelligence is healthy and that AI is being used to help advance society and not hinder it.

Source: mit.edu

References

[1] “Advancing Wellbeing.” MIT Media Lab, accessed February 2, 2019, https://www.media.mit.edu/groups/advancing-wellbeing/overview/.

[2] “Affective Computing.” MIT Media Lab, accessed February 2, 2019, https://www.media.mit.edu/groups/affective-computing/overview/.

[3] “Embrace 2.” Empatica, accessed February 2, 2019, https://www.empatica.com/embrace2/.

[4] “Rosalind W. Picard.” MIT Media Lab, accessed February 2, 2019, https://www.media.mit.edu/people/picard/overview/.

[5] “Rosalind W. Picard: Biography.” Stern Strategy Group, accessed February 2, 2019, https://sternspeakers.com/speakers/rosalind-picard/.

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Rosalind Picard

References