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AI and Empathy: How Close to Humans Can AI Apps Evolve?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is beginning to be routinely used in consumer applications. Think Siri and Alexa. 16 percent of Americans have a smart speaker in their homes. Because interactions with bots and speakers are becoming more common, some are questioning how these interactions and conversations will change how humans act, and also asking the reverse question of how apps and robots will evolve to become more humanlike to achieve something equivalent to human empathy.
Bill Mark, president of Information and Computing Services at SRI International, said that “we don’t understand all that much about emotions to begin with, and we’re very far from having computers that really understand that. I think we’re even farther away from achieving artificial empathy. Some people cry when they’re happy, a lot of people smile when they’re frustrated. So, very simplistic approaches, like thinking that if somebody is smiling they’re happy, are not going to work.”
Mark said that “Siri and systems like Siri are very good at single-shot interactions. You ask for something and it responds. For banking, shopping or healthcare, you’re going to need an extended conversation, but you won’t be able to state everything you want in one utterance so you’re really in a joint problem-solving situation with the system. Some level of emotional recognition and the ability to act on that recognition is required for that kind of dialogue.”
