Microsoft stops selling emotion-reading technologyReuters, OAKLAND, CaliforniaMicrosoft Corp on Tuesday said that it would stop selling technology that guesses someone’s emotion based on a facial image and would no longer provide unfettered access to facial recognition technology. Since at least last year, Microsoft has been reviewing whether emotion recognition systems are rooted in science. Existing customers would have one year before losing access to artificial intelligence tools that purport to infer emotion, gender, age, smile, facial hair, hair and makeup. Google blocked 13 planned emotions from its tool for reading emotion and placed under review four existing ones, such as joy and sorrow. Microsoft also said customers now must obtain approval to use its facial recognition services, which can enable people to log into Web sites or open locked doors through a face scan.
