How is artificial empathy compared to human empathy and ethics in decision making and what are some of the early business use cases of artificial empathy ?

Abstract :

Companies with humanistic and ethical principles at their heart may benefit from this approach to establishing their organizations. People are prone to a variety of cognitive biases.

Empathetic artificial intelligence systems will be able to infuse more empathy into the way their operations are handled. Empathy in AI systems may enable us to take the first step toward functioning artificial general intelligence, which will empower humankind. This article will explore how empathetic artificial intelligence is compared to human empathy and ethics and if Empathy in AI systems can enable better decision making. The article will also look into some early use case of empathetic artificial intelligence.

Keywords :

Affective, Artificial Empathy, Congitive, Emotional Intelligence, Maslow’s Hierarchy, Human Empathy, Somatic, Singularity, Synthesis.

Introduction

Most of us want to think of ourselves as rational beings. In reality, our emotions control a significant portion of our cognitive abilities. Human beings are highly sociable animals. Empathy is essential for our survival. Neuroscientists verified in a research that emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence share numerous brain systems that are involved in the integration of cognitive, social, and affective processes. ( Aron 2021 ) This research supports what psychologists have known for decades: that emotional intelligence and general intelligence are intertwined and interdependent on one another.

When we speak of people living ethical lives, we often refer to a life in which we are able to demonstrate a high level of empathy. We may use our empathy to engage with our environment and come to a common understanding with others.

In the same way, when it comes to artificial intelligence, the purpose of employing empathy in AI for particular business cases in order to improve our enterprises may significantly raise our chances of engaging in ethical business practices. As a result, there may be an increase in empathy across the business.

Human Empathy & Ethics vs. Artificial Empathy

Empathy will be critical in artificial intelligence systems if we are to get toward artificial general intelligence. Artificial empathy is distinct from human empathy in the same way that human intelligence is distinct from artificial intelligence.

Artificial empathy, is defined as the coding of empathy into robots. He defines artificial empathy, sometimes known as heartificial empathy, as being personal, situational, and dependent on the acceptable motives of the person exhibiting it.

Because empathy can be taught, artificial intelligence will almost certainly be equipped with artificial empathy in the not-too-distant future.

Empathy is the process of slowly and truly seeing the world through the perspective of another person. It is not something that can be acquired in school; rather, it must be developed throughout a lifetime. ( Minter, 2018 ). In order for agents to be aided by machines in delivering more empathetic and effective service, the issue will be to establish the correct composition and chemistry for the agents to be aided by machines." ( Minter, 2018 ). Taking cognisance of acceptable use cases for artificial empathy, companies may then incorporate greater empathy into their operations and the services that they deliver to their consumers.

The issue over whether or not to include empathy into AI systems is also entwined with the question of ethics. Some believe that incorporating human emotions into artificial intelligence would lead to Singluarity. It's reasonable that we're afraid about the Singularity coming our way as it is possible for artificial intelligence to one day supplant humankind. ( Jayshree, 2019 ).

In recent years, as artificial intelligence systems have been a bigger and growing part of our workplaces and homes. We are becoming more worried about the ethics of artificial intelligence. Is the progess of artificial intelligence bringing out the best in humanity and improving the quality of our human lives.

When we speak of people living ethically, we are likely to use our empathy to engage with our environment and come to a common understanding socially. ( Charles, 2015 ) People who work for compassionate organizations have a greater likelihood of living an ethical life than their counterparts. In the same way, when it comes to AI, the purpose of employing empathy in AI for particular business cases in order to improve our enterprises may significantly raise our chances of engaging in ethical business practices.

Early Use Case of Artificial Empathy

In order to attain artificial general intelligence, an artificial intelligence must make judgments based on empathy. This implies that the system must be integrated into the "artificial brain" in order to have an impact on both cognitive and emotional processes at once. ( Andy, 2020 ) Businesses must determine the proper use cases for empathy in order to design successful artificial intelligence systems that provide value to their operations.

One early use case is in customer care. A customer care chatbot may converse with the client in the same way as a human would. It will be possible for this chatbot to speak the programmed questions in a natural tone and with intonation. Once this is accomplished, the empathetic chatbot will be able to detect complicated emotions such as frustration based on the replies of the customer.

When a consumer expresses abnormally high levels of frustration, the chatbot may determine whether or not to transfer the consumer to a human support person based on the quality of the emotional experience the consumer has had. When an empathic chatbot senses pleasure and pleasure from a consumer, the chatbot has received genuine confirmation of the consumer's contentment.

In other words, rather of having the impression that you are talking to a machine, the experience of conversing with an empathic robot might be far more intimate.

Another more effective use case of empathy in artificial intelligence to assist others is in the realm of healthcare. Nursing and medical professionals who care for dementia patients have a severe emotional challenge. The application of empathy by AI robots in the treatment of dementia patients may prevent doctors and nurses from being "burned out", and hence improving the quality of service. Their responsibilities include collaborating with nurses to monitor patients and providing daily care. Patients with dementia who get regular, empathic care report better results, on the other hand.

Can Empathetic Artificial Intelligence Make Better Decisions?

When it comes to Artificial Intelligence systems, one of the most common complaints is that they are unable to "explain" how they came to their conclusions or judgments.

As a result of incorporating the Emotional Processing Unit – EPU into their AI systems, these systems will be able to communicate the emotions that were utilized to make sympathetic judgments. ( Adam, 2020 ). A customized system, rather than a "black box" of training sets and data generalization across multiple kinds of data, is designed to meet the specific emotional demands of each individual consumer. Transparency in AI decision making will be improved through the use of empathetic AI systems, by detecting customers' emotional states that are driving the AI system's conclusions.

Empathetic AI Systems may have a higher chance of garnering widespread acceptance if they include more openness into the decision-making process of the system.

Conclusion

As our artificial general intelligence systems progress toward artificial general intelligence, understanding application cases in which empathy might be beneficial in our AI systems will allow for more ethical implementations of artificial general intelligence.

People are prone to a variety of cognitive biases. Once real-world use cases and applications have been specified, an emotionally intelligent AI may begin to focus on eliminating cognitive biases that are widespread in human beings, such as fear and anger.

Artificial emotional intelligence, with the support of empathy in AI systems, may enable us to take the first step toward functioning artificial general intelligence, which will empower humankind.

Those firms who use sympathetic artificial intelligence systems will be able to infuse more empathy into the way their operations are handled. As a result, companies with humanistic and ethical principles at their heart may benefit from this approach to establishing their organizations.

Bibliography

Minter Dial, Heartificial Empathy ( November 2018 )

Jayshree Pandya, Technological Singularity ( Feb 2019 )

Chip Conley, Peak - How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow Revised (December 2017)

Aron K. Barbey, Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience ( July 2021 )

Christine Lisetti, Emotion Synthesis ( Nov, 2008 )

Adam Torres, Emotion Synthesis Chip for AI and Robots ( Sept, 2020 )

Charles Holm, The 25 Cognitive Biases ( Jan 2015 )

Andy Williams, Artificial General Intelligence Model ( July 2020 )