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AI Act Recital 18 EN
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Recital 18 — emotion recognition system definition

In force — consolidated2026-07-27 · CELEX 02024R1689-20260727 · ELI ↗
Version history 2
  • 2026-07-27in force CELEX 02024R1689-20260727
  • 2024-07-12 CELEX 02024R1689-20240712

The notion of ‘emotion recognition system’ referred to in this Regulation should be defined as an AI system for the purpose of identifying or inferring emotions or intentions of natural persons on the basis of their biometric data. The notion refers to emotions or intentions such as happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, embarrassment, excitement, shame, contempt, satisfaction and amusement. It does not include physical states, such as pain or fatigue, including, for example, systems used in detecting the state of fatigue of professional pilots or drivers for the purpose of preventing accidents. This does also not include the mere detection of readily apparent expressions, gestures or movements, unless they are used for identifying or inferring emotions. Those expressions can be basic facial expressions, such as a frown or a smile, or gestures such as the movement of hands, arms or head, or characteristics of a person’s voice, such as a raised voice or whispering.

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