---
title: "Emotion AI Event with Matthew Strafuss | human depth"
description: "Join human depth for a live Emotion AI session with Matthew Strafuss of iMotions on what it takes for AI to understand human needs, not just signals."
canonical: "https://humandepth.org/events/human-depth-talks-does-ai-understand-what-we-need/"
---

[Back to events](https://humandepth.org/events/)

# Does AI understand what we need?

Lessons from pioneering Emotion AI. Beyond recognizing signals and labeling emotions, what it really means for AI to understand a human, and what we want it to do for us.

Thursday, August 27

· 17:30 UTC

Online

45 min · Live Q&A

## Speaker

- Matthew Strafuss — Global Director of Affective Computing, iMotions

## About this event

**human depth**

Much of the work in the human data field teaches AI to recognize what humans feel. Labeling expressions, rating sentiment, annotating emotion. That is the signal side of the problem.

In this live human depth conversation, Matthew Strafuss, Global Director of Affective Computing at iMotions, takes us one step past recognition. Matthew helped build some of the earliest real-world Emotion AI, from AI-powered facial expression analysis to webcam-based eye tracking, through Affectiva and now iMotions.

We will explore what it really means for AI to understand a human, where reading signals ends and understanding needs begins, and what we actually want these systems to do for us as they reach our cars, our screens, and our research labs. The session closes with a live Q&A.

**Show less**

## Agenda

**Hide**

1

### From recognizing signals to understanding needs

What Emotion AI actually measures today, and the gap between labeling emotions and understanding a human.

2

### Lessons from pioneering Emotion AI

What building facial expression analysis and webcam-based eye tracking at Affectiva and iMotions taught the field about human data.

3

### What we want AI to do for us

Where emotion-aware systems are heading in research, products, and everyday interfaces, and the choices that shape them.

4

### Live Q&A

Questions about Emotion AI, affective computing, and the human data behind emotion-aware systems.

![HumanDepth event poster for Does AI understand what we need?](https://humandepth.org/assets/human-depth-talks-does-ai-understand-what-we-need.png)

Open for registration

## Register