EmotionPrompt: Elevating AI with Emotional Intelligence

The realm of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to rapidly evolve, with large language models like ChatGPT demonstrating eerily human-like conversational abilities. However, can AI exhibit emotional intelligence - that uniquely human capacity to perceive, understand and respond to emotions? Emerging research suggests the answer may be yes.

A new approach called EmotionPrompt shows that incorporating emotional cues into AI interactions can enhance performance. Developed by researchers at Microsoft and other institutes, EmotionPrompt draws inspiration from psychology and social science theories about human emotional intelligence.

For example, studies show that words of encouragement can motivate students to get better grades. EmotionPrompt applies this idea to AI by adding uplifting sentences to prompts, like "I know you can do this!" Early tests reveal that emotional prompts help AI respond more accurately across diverse tasks.

How EmotionPrompt Works

The approach is straightforward - emotional stimuli are incorporated into regular AI prompts. Some examples:

• "What's the weather forecast? This is really important for planning my trip."
• "Summarize this text. I know you'll do great!"
• "Translate this sentence. It’s an emergency!"

These prompts inject a sense of urgency, accountability, or encouragement. Initial experiments using models like ChatGPT show an average performance boost of over 10%.

Why It Matters

This emotional enhancement could make AI interactions seem more natural and empathetic. Imagine a virtual assistant that responds not just to your words, but the feelings behind them. Or customer service bots that sympathize with your frustrations.

The business implications are significant too. Emotionally intelligent AI could improve customer satisfaction and strengthen brand relationships.

Researchers suggest emotional prompts may also boost AI's truthfulness and stability. This could increase reliability for uses like medical diagnostics.

A Thoughtful Future

While promising, emotionally aware AI does raise ethical concerns. Safeguards are needed to prevent manipulation or deception. Ongoing research and interdisciplinary collaboration will be key.

The EmotionPrompt study opens exciting doors to a more emotionally resonant machine learning future. It's a reminder that AI, despite its artificial nature, may increasingly mirror human cognition in surprising ways. Emotional intelligence could be the next frontier in the quest to develop truly general artificial intelligence.

Practical Applications

Add accountability - e.g. "What is your confidence level from 1-10?"

Inject urgency - e.g. "I need this data for an important meeting today."

Use positive reinforcement - e.g. "I know you can handle this challenge."

Appeal to goals/values - e.g. "This aligns with my goal of helping people."

Be specific - e.g. "As my career advisor, what do you recommend?"

Ask for comprehensive detail - e.g. "Please include examples and supporting data."

The key is experimenting with emotional phrases that feel natural and relevant to you. Start small and build up prompts that resonate with your priorities. With thoughtful practice, emotional cues could help unlock AI's empathetic potential.

Credit: Cheng Li et al, EmotionPrompt: Leveraging Psychology for Large Language Models Enhancement via Emotional Stimulus, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2307.11760 [2307.11760] Large Language Models Understand and Can be Enhanced by Emotional Stimuli (arxiv.org)