Opacity of Commercial Emotion-Labeling Systems

Ascertain the internal labeling processes and decision rules used by employer-deployed commercial software that claims to label workers’ emotions from images and video, which are currently undisclosed due to trade secret protections, in order to evaluate and verify their operation and claims.

Background

To counter AI hype and promote precise language, the authors present an example focused on workplace emotion analysis tools. They emphasize that while vendors advertise emotion-labeling capabilities, the mechanisms underlying these labels are not disclosed due to trade secret claims.

This lack of transparency creates an unresolved question about how such labeling systems actually function, which bears directly on their validity, reliability, and ethical deployment in workplace surveillance contexts.