Affective computing’s originator warned of its commercial exploitation risks.

Evidence

Back in 1997, Picard acknowledged the need for privacy “so that you remain in control over who gets access to this information.” Importantly for our analysis, in the final pages of her book she expressed some concerns, writing that “there are good reasons not to broadcast your affective patterns to the world… you might flaunt your good mood in front of friends… you probably do not want it picked up by an army of sales people who are eager to exploit mood-based buying habits, or by advertisers eager to convince you that you’d feel better if you tried their new soft drink right now.” She noted the possibility of intrusive workplace monitoring, and she voiced reservations about the possibility of a dystopian future in which “malevolent” governmental forces use affective computing to manipulate and control the emotions of populations. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 891

Categorization

• XREF: Picard’s 1997 fears of mood-exploiting advertisers presage exactly the prediction market uses Zuboff documents later in the chapter. — connects to: Market forces redirected affective computing from empowerment into commercial surveillance — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 909; The affective-computing pioneer’s own company ended up doing surveillance capitalism — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 895

Broader Connections

• Market forces redirected affective computing from empowerment into commercial surveillance #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 909
• The affective-computing pioneer’s own company ended up doing surveillance capitalism #exemplifies (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 895