The Future of AI: Artificial Empathy

Artwork by Megan Lui

A prominent fear regarding the emergence and use of artificial intelligence (AI) is that it will fundamentally change how humans interact: how we feel, experience, and communicate emotions. Despite how crucial empathy is for humans in order to establish meaningful connections and relationships, empathy seems to be dwindling. As technology and AI become increasingly popular, people interact less with each other and more with their screens; most meaningful experiences and emotional exchanges get replaced with fast online clicks and automated messages. Empathy is developed and learned through shared experiences and a sense of understanding emotions and a myriad of circumstances. The decrease in genuine, in-person experiences and encounters amongst humans is creating a decline in peoples’ capacity for empathy. In addition to peoples’ concern about losing such interactions due to the increased presence of technology in their lives, many speculate that AI itself will develop a sense of consciousness and that this will happen in the near future. If such a phenomenon is to occur, we need to consider the consequences of AI consciousness. Furthermore, we need to consider how an AI with consciousness would contribute to our society. We aren’t ready to give up all of the great benefits of AI, such as advancing scientific discovery, increasing technological efficiency, and overall improving our quality of life. So, either humans become more robot-like, or AI becomes more human-like. It may therefore be a good idea to consider the ways in which empathy could be programmed into AI so that they can integrate with humans in the best ethical way possible. With this said, I would like to change your mind by posing a question: What if we were to give AI empathy?

Why should we consider giving AI empathy?

“Put yourself in my shoes”. Humans use this phrase to remind each other to be more empathetic. When you can put yourself in someone else’s position, you can share a part of what they are going through and feeling. By sharing this part, you can better understand and support them. Humans need empathy. They need to put themselves in each other’s shoes in order to create connections, understand other’s perspectives, and relate their emotions as if they were their own. If humans get stripped away from their ability to make such…