Lina El Kaliouby

Egyptian computer scientist who developed groundbreaking AI emotion recognition technology

Lina El Kaliouby (b. 1978) is an Egyptian-British computer scientist whose work in affective computing is reshaping human-AI interactions. As co-founder of Affectiva, she pioneered the first commercial emotion recognition software capable of detecting micro-expressions through facial analysis. Her technology now powers emotional AI systems used by 10,000+ companies across sectors from healthcare to automotive.

Growing up in Cairo and London, El Kaliouby observed how technology often ignored human emotional needs. This inspired her PhD research at Cambridge University on Emotion-Sensitive Systems, leading to the creation of the Affdex platform. Her team's dataset of 8+ million facial videos across 87 countries became the largest emotion database in existence.

In 2017, she developed the Emotion AI XPRIZE, a $2M competition to create AI that can detect emotions in diverse populations. This initiative produced breakthroughs in autism communication aids and mental health monitoring systems. Her work has been featured in Wired and NPR, earning her recognition as one of MIT's Top 35 Innovators Under 35.

El Kaliouby's current focus is on ethical AI development, co-authoring the Emotion AI Bill of Rights to ensure responsible use of emotion data. Her recent book 《Girl Decoded》 chronicles her journey as a Muslim woman in tech and the challenges of balancing innovation with ethics. She advises major tech companies including Google and Microsoft on AI ethics, advocating for transparency in emotion detection systems.