AI-Generated Empathy: Opportunities, Limits, and Future Directions

Artificial Intelligence models can generate emotional support messages that peopleperceive to be highly empathic; however, people also perceive less empathy if they believe that messages were AI-generated. This new focus on how the empathy recipient perceives human- written versus AI-generated empathic responses has recently gained attention. We review and synthesize recent empirical work using meta-analyses, clarify claims and limitations, and highlight future directions. This emerging literature carries significant implications for fundamental research on empathy, for public discourse as the use of AI for emotional support rapidly grows, and for policymakers considering regulation and ethical guidance.