Elon Musk spoke to Tucker Carlson about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence for humanity,
among other topics.
And his facial expressions can help you learn how to read the body language of people with
Asperger's.
(001)
It's called the Singularity.
It's a singularity like a black hole.
It's hard to predict.
So I think we should be cautious with A.I.
In this video, you will learn:
- The one simple trick to read any face, regardless if they have Aspergers or not,
- Why it's so important to pay attention to people's blinking rate, and
- In the case of people with Asperger's, how to make it easier for them to read YOUR emotions.
Welcome Back, my Body Language Buddies!
my name is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I'm the Body Language Guy,
You might remember my analysis of Elon's interview by the BBC, where he eviscerated James Clayton.
Well, Elon said that his intentions with this kind of interviews was to talk with journalists
from all over the political spectrum.
This is important to determine a person's state of mind when we are going to do a body
language analysis, so in this case we know that he's more than willing to do that interview.
So let's take a second look at those two expressions we saw at the start of this video.
They are going to be relevant to establish our approach to this analysis.
(001)
It's called the Singularity.
It's a singularity like a black hole.
It's hard to predict.
So I think we should be cautious with A.I.
In this case we have two signals.
The first one is lip pressure, and the second is an eyebrow raise.
Those are emotional markers just because they don't happen all the time during this interview,
but at very precise moments.
The trick is finding out what triggers them.
But let's see another example in the following clip:
Once in a blue moon.
Rarely.
I will disagree with regulators, but the vast majority of the time my companies agree with
the regulations and comply.
Make my companies agree with the regulations and comply.
We just spotted basically the same lip pressure than when he was talking about the unpredictability
of AI.
But in this case, he was talking about government regulations, a topic that is never comfortable
for anyone.
So maybe he's upset that he needs to make sure his companies comply to regulations that
might change, or might be unfair from his perspective, and that's why he displays that
emotional marker.
We are also noticing a pattern that could be part of his natural body language.
Maybe his face in general is not that expressive but we have our first clue into his emotions.
Remember: body language is unique to every person so we are trying to establish a pattern
so we can understand the person's feelings.
And that's why we have to address one myth about Asperger's.
One general misconception about people with Asperger's is that they lack feelings or empathy,
and this is simply not true.
What happens is that they have difficulty identifying those emotions in themselves and
discussing them.
In fact, strong feelings such as fear, joy or anger, can be experienced much more intensely
by people with Asperger's than the average person.
Regarding the connection with other people's feelings, or empathy, most individuals with
Asperger's are able to get emotionally in sync with a person who is feeling a strong
emotion.
The problem is that they do not express emotions the way that we expect.
It is not uncommon that their facial expression can be confusing.
And one of the reasons that Elon jokes about being an alien is that his gaze is a very
interesting contradiction.
It's like he's detached and intensely focused on something at the same time.
And one of the reasons he looks detached is because his glabella, or the space between
his eyebrows, almost never has any kind of expression.
This area is critical for conveying emotions, but in his case, it doesn't tell much while
he's talking.
But, on the other hand, he looks completely focused and invested in the person he's talking
to.
And it's because of his blinking rate.
We typically blink every 5 or 6 seconds, maybe a bit more.
But watching this video I realized that this is one of the reasons Elon Musk's stare can
be so intriguing.
Because he blinks around 6 or 7 times a minute.
In fact, that intense eye contact could be uncomfortable for most people.
That's why in persuasion there's the rule of the five seconds: keep eye contact but
every five seconds, give it a rest.
Blinks help the brain register and process information.
In Elon's case, I noticed that his blinking usually happens right after he looks to one
side, trying to structure his idea as he speaks, and when he finally gets it, he blinks.
That's how you identify body language patterns in any person.
But I think the next clip is the best one to depict Elon's odd emotional displays:
- It is conceivable that I could take control and reach a point where you couldn't turn
it off and it would be making making the decisions for people.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
- No, it's that's that's definitely where things are headed, for sure.
I mean, uhm...
So, Tucker is basically asking the direct question about AI: that at some point, it
could make all decisions for humans.
It sounds a bit crazy, like becoming our master.
And you could imagine that any other human being is going to react with some kind of
emotion about this.
About how depressing and bleak the future sounds when painted this way.
But we cannot see any emotions on his glabella or his forehead.
The only thing we spot, once again, is that lip pressure at the end of his words.
That's how we start spotting patterns so we can better understand the facial expressions
of people with Asperger's.
And it's great, because the same tools will give you an advantage reading any face.
Now, talking about general body language and hand gestures, Elon is very economical.
He usually uses his right hand, or dominant hand to add emphasis to his words, but he
usually looks like he doesn't want to overdo it, so he prefers to anchor both hands on
his legs or one of his knees.
That last posture, the anchoring of both hands on one knee makes him look just a little defensive,
by raising his left shoulder.
But I don't think he cares much about that, because he's the type that prefers his words
to convey his ideas, more than his body language.
And so far, his ideas and companies have spoken for himself, so there's that.
It's interesting that at some point of the interview he makes a pause to think with his
hands:
But I think perhaps what you may be alluding to here is that regulations are really only
put into effect after something terrible has happened.
It's his way of taking just a second off while he finds the most efficient way to convey
what he's going to say next.
So far, we have noticed that Elon's body language, including his facial expressions, can leave
a lot to interpretation if we are not aware of him having Asperger's.
But we usually don't have that benefit with most people, so that's why we should be ready
to look at all those tiny body language details whenever we are engaging on a conversation.
But another characteristic that could put you off in cases like this, is his monotone
voice.
It has very subtle inflections, but while those inflections could be emotional displays
for him, they are pratically the standard voice tone fluctuations for the average person.
And I always stress the importance of listening to people's voice.
Not only because of the words they choose to express themselves, but volume, voice tone
an if there are any changes here and there.
In Elon it's specially difficult for that monotone.
I say Elon, because not every person with Asperger's does this, and it also depends
on the circumstances, as I mentioned at the start of this video.
Now, I promised to give you a trick to help people with Asperger's to better understand
our emotions, and it's very simple.
You just have to be more verbose than usual with your emotions.
Since they have a hard time reading faces, spotting body language clues, listening to
voice tone and making sense of it, it is much easier if you take your time to establish
your current mood or feelings with words.
That's when you notice that we usually have a very limited emotional vocabulary.
And there's something beautiful about expanding your knowledge of words about feelings.
You become more nuanced, not only to better communicate with someone who might have trouble
understanding your facial expressions, but you also learn to better define how you feel
at any given moment.
It is not exactly the same to feel angry, than to feel annoyed.
It is much more precise to know that you feel isolated, than just sad.
Or that you know that you feel happy because you're especially inspired right now.
Expanding your emotional vocabulary will have a positive effect in you, and those around
you.
And body language in people with Asperger's can be fascinating.
And if you want me to go deeper in this topic, here's my promise: if this video gets to 10.000
likes, Then I'll make a video dedicated exclusively to Asperger's and Nonverbal Communication.
So, let's make a recap of today's tips:
- People with Asperger's could be hard to read, but they will have a body language baseline,
just like any other person.
Only, that it will be way more subtle.
- To define that body language baseline, don't stress too much if their eyebrows don't move
too much, or their voice tone doesn't change.
Spot the subtle reactions, such as Elon when he pressed his lips, so you can build a reference
about their emotions.
- At the same time, make sure you expand your emotional vocabulary and never make the mistake
of thinking that your body language is no longer necessary.
On the contrary, keeping your own body language while you use nuanced words to describe how
you feel, will help people with Asperger's identify your emotional patterns.
And you will both have a better communication.
My Body Language Buddies!
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Much Love and Bliss.