Book contents
- Empathy and Artificial Intelligence
- Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction
- Empathy and Artificial Intelligence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- AI and Empathy at a Crossroads
- Part I Understanding Empathy
- Part II Perceiving AI Empathy
- Chapter 7 Get Real
- Chapter 8 Humans and AIs May Fulfill Different Empathic Needs
- Chapter 9 Empathic AI Will Undermine Human Kindness
- Chapter 10 What LLMpathy Can Tell Us about Received Empathy
- Chapter 11 Machines That Care
- Chapter 12 What’s So Special about Human Empathy?
- Part III Beyond Text: Embodiment and Robots
- Part IV Moral Implications
- Index
- Studies In Emotion and Social Interaction
- References
Chapter 11 - Machines That Care
On Receiving and Providing AI-Driven Empathy
from Part II - Perceiving AI Empathy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2026
Book contents
- Empathy and Artificial Intelligence
- Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction
- Empathy and Artificial Intelligence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- AI and Empathy at a Crossroads
- Part I Understanding Empathy
- Part II Perceiving AI Empathy
- Chapter 7 Get Real
- Chapter 8 Humans and AIs May Fulfill Different Empathic Needs
- Chapter 9 Empathic AI Will Undermine Human Kindness
- Chapter 10 What LLMpathy Can Tell Us about Received Empathy
- Chapter 11 Machines That Care
- Chapter 12 What’s So Special about Human Empathy?
- Part III Beyond Text: Embodiment and Robots
- Part IV Moral Implications
- Index
- Studies In Emotion and Social Interaction
- References
Summary
AI, with its strong emotion recognition and empathic response generation capabilities, has the potential to dramatically impact how humans receive and provide empathy. However, as AI assumes a more significant role in empathy provision, important questions arise. Does AI-delivered empathy truly fulfill the emotional needs of human recipients? Can AI’s empathic capabilities help reduce the emotional labor of human providers? And how might it reshape the way people experience and value emotional connections in the digital age? This chapter explores these tensions by considering both the recipient and provider perspectives over the short and long term. In the short term, AI can alleviate emotional labor and offer effective emotional support, but it may also reduce humans’ empathic engagement. In the long term, reliance on AI may fundamentally alter social norms and emotional bonds, potentially leading to empathy atrophy or changing the nature of meaningful interactions. Overall, we aim to understand whether AI-driven empathy serves as a meaningful supplement to human interaction or a force that fundamentally alters the nature of emotional connection in the digital age.
Keywords
Information
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- Information
- Empathy and Artificial IntelligenceChallenges, Advances and Ethical Considerations, pp. 113 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
References
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