From Perception to Empathy: Why Small Models May Win the Emotional AI Race
Customer support is where emotional AI often goes to embarrass itself. A user says, “Fine, whatever.” The system detects a neutral sentence. A human hears irritation, resignation, and possibly the final five seconds before churn. The difference is not vocabulary. It is context, tone, facial expression, timing, and the reason behind the emotion. Unfortunately, many “emotion AI” systems still behave as if the job is to pick a label from a menu: happy, sad, angry, neutral. Very scientific. Also very convenient, because menus are easier than people. ...