What's so special about human empathy? Examining AI empathy and its trade-offs

As artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly embedded within our emotional and relational landscapes, ethical debate has emerged surrounding the use of AI for empathic support and care. Many have criticized the very notion of “AI empathy,” because AI lacks the capacity to authentically share in the experience of the empathy recipient, or to be selective in its choice to empathize. We argue that, underlying these existing criticisms, is a tendency to highlight particular qualities unique to human empathy (e.g., selectivity, effort) and use these qualities to suggest that human empathy is inherently and universally superior to AI empathy. In the present chapter, we challenge the idea that one form of empathy can be clearly defined as essentially superior to the other. Instead, we suggest that a more fruitful way to frame this debate is in terms of the possible trade-offs between what human and AI sources of empathy can offer in particular situations. Emphasizing the empathy recipient's perspective, we explore possible dimensions in which each empathizer source may excel, shaping the recipient’s possible preference for one source over the other. Drawing upon different ethical frameworks, we then discuss the possible normative consequences of whether one ought to accept or avoid AI empathy, given these trade-offs.