China is testing emotion recognition from surveillance systems

Excerpted from the movie Minority Report is the news coming from China about the possibilities of monitoring the mental state of citizens. China will then install surveillance systems at airports, subways and shopping malls that will recognize the feelings of the citizens through artificial intelligence. According to the Financial Times , this technology is already being tested in Xinjiang province, known for its Orwellian surveillance regime because there are more than a million Muslims living there.

According to Xinjiang police, the identification of emotions via video material ” can identify suspects by analyzing their mental state to prevent illegal acts, including terrorism and smuggling .”

However security experts are not so sure of the effectiveness of the system. ACLU analyst Jay Stanley told Axios that the science of emotion recognition is quite problematic, while some studies have shown that the connection between emotional state and facial expressions is difficult if not impossible, regardless of content, face or culture.