Can artificial intelligence (AI) exhibit better empathy than humans regarding mental health concerns? This is what a recent study published in Communications Psychology hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T) investigated whether AI was capable of more compassionate responses than humans. This study has the potential to help scientists, mental health advocates, and the public better understand contributions AI-to-human interactions can achieve compared to human-to-human interactions.
“AI doesn’t get tired,” said Dariya Ovsyannikova, who is a laboratory operations manager in the Toronto Laboratory for Social Neuroscience at U of T and lead author of the study. “It can offer consistent, high-quality empathetic responses without the emotional strain that humans experience.”
For the study, the researchers conducted four survey studies involving 556 participants who were tasked with reading statements and evaluating responses from humans versus AI counterparts, with the participants knowing whether it was AI or human responses for some of the studies but not for others. In the end, the researchers found that the participants preferred AI responses over human responses, noting AI’s increased responsiveness, empathy, and care. While the researchers note this could lay groundwork for using AI in emphatic means, it could also have some drawbacks, as well.
“If AI becomes the preferred source of empathy, people might retreat from human interactions, exacerbating the very problems we’re trying to solve, like loneliness and social isolation,” said Dr. Michael Inzlicht, who is a professor in the Department of Psychology at U of T and a co-author on the study.
Additionally, humans might still be weary of using AI for such purposes, which is known as “AI aversion”, with Dr. Inzlicht noting a generational gap between older and younger audiences with trusting AI, with the latter trusting it more due to more interaction.
How will AI contribute to human understanding and interactions in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Communications Psychology, EurekAlert!, University of Toronto
