Welcome to this week’s edition of Simon Sees!
This week’s signal inspiration comes from the latest Future With Friends episode — “The Future of Emotional Transparency“, featuring the always insightful Dr Kirsten Peterson.
In episode 17, I chat with Dr Kirsten Peterson — “KP” — Olympic performance psychologist, about a future where technology tracks athletes’ feelings in real time (think Fitbits on steroids). It’s a world where performance meets emotion — and every feeling becomes another stat to be measured and judged.
Now to this week’s signals. The Conversation reports on the rise of emotion-tracking AI in workplaces, where algorithms analyse tone, facial expressions and wearable data to measure how employees “feel.” The goal is wellbeing, yet most workers say it just makes them feel watched and misunderstood.
Business Law Today explores the legal and ethical grey zones of emotional AI, warning that as technology learns to read and respond to human emotions, it also opens the door to bias, manipulation and privacy risks. Who owns your feelings when they’re turned into data?
And AP News looks at AI companions for teenagers, exploring how generative “friends” built to be emotionally responsive may reshape how young people connect – offering comfort, but also raising fears of dependence and a fading ability to relate person-to-person.
If we keep chasing technological progress and prizing transparency above all else, we need to ask: is this the world we want for our kids? As teenager Ganesh Nair puts it, “When you’re talking to AI, you are always right. You’re always interesting. You are always emotionally justified.”
Perhaps the real challenge is recognising when what is real begins to slip away – and finding the courage to remain human.
THE CONVERSATION
Emotion-tracking AI on the job: Workers fear being watched – and misunderstood
“Even as emotion-AI is pitched as a tool to support workers’ well-being, many fear it will leave them feeling constantly watched, misread and at the mercy of decisions they cannot contest.”
BUSINESS LAW TODAY
The Price of Emotion: Privacy, Manipulation, and Bias in Emotional AI
“When AI systems begin reading our feelings, they don’t simply reflect emotion—they can use it for persuasion, posing profound threats to privacy, fairness and autonomy.”
AP NEWS
Teens say they are turning to AI for friendship
“Teenagers increasingly turn to AI companions for friendship, advice and emotional support—sometimes finding solace, but also opening a new front in mental-health concerns.”
THE FUTURE WITH FRIENDS PODCAST
Ep 17: The Future of Emotional Transparency
In this episode of The Future With Friends, Simon is joined by the incredible Dr Kirsten Peterson — or KP, as everyone knows her — a performance psychologist and coach who has attended seven Olympic Games. Together, they explore the fascinating and deeply human topic of the future of emotional transparency.
KP’s future scenario imagines a world where emotions are openly shared and even measured — a future that challenges how we think about authenticity, vulnerability, and performance. Drawing on her deep experience supporting elite athletes, KP tells the story of Beth, a competitor navigating the emotional highs, lows, and manipulation that come with this new kind of openness. It’s a scenario that doesn’t feel far-fetched — where wearable tech, data, and performance pressures collide to both reveal and influence our inner worlds.
Simon and KP’s conversation goes on to unpack what it really means to be emotionally transparent: the benefits of openness, the vulnerability it demands, and the risks of a world where our inner states are always on display. Their conversation moves seamlessly between the personal and the professional, the athletic arena and everyday life — all anchored by KP’s rare blend of wisdom, warmth, and experience.At its heart, The Future of Emotional Transparency is an exploration of what it means to be human in an increasingly exposed world — and how, by learning to share our emotions more authentically, we might build deeper trust, connection, and resilience in the years ahead.
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Simon
