Today, technology is acquiring the capability to sense and respond skilfully to human emotion, and in some cases to act as if it has emotional processes that make it more intelligent. What is driving this progress? I‘ll give examples of the potential for good with this technology in helping people with autism, epilepsy, and mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression. However, the possibilities are much larger: Affect sensing is being used to make ads less boring, and to sell more products. Social robots will need emotional intelligence, in order to not annoy us. Some organizations want to sense human emotion without people knowing or consenting, for example, to detect terrorists in public settings. A few scientists want to build computers that are vastly superior to humans, capable of powers beyond reproducing their own kind. What do we want to see built? And, how might we make sure that new affective technologies make human lives better?