Can AI Genuinely Understand and Empathise with Human Emotional Experiences, or Can It Only Simulate Empathy Through Programmed Responses?
Who do you turn to in your moment of need: a parent, a best friend, or perhaps, an AI chatbot?
“I lost my job”
“My pet just passed”
“My boyfriend broke up with me”
Society has moved past the genuine questions of physical achievement and has obtained a new level of wonder for our AI chatbots. As AI strives to become an even more sophisticated technology, people have started to trust this bot as a tutor, a gardener, a therapist, and even more terrifying, a best friend. The endless comfort that someone is willing to listen to you, with the full ability to say whatever your heart desires, since this machine cannot run off to tell its “friends” your drama. Our world has now entrusted AI to comment on their personal lives and be their help through difficult times.
These are dangerous waters, although they may look safe. We must remember that empathy is not just about the giver; it is about the receiver. How must we continue to nurture true human empathy if we continue to express our feelings into a robot? John Searle, an American philosopher teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, talked about a “Chinese Room.” A terrific approach to understanding how AI functions. Fundamentally, he explains that you can continue to feed information from your story to the chatbox, although all that AI views are symbols. To put it in perspective, if you are an Englishman who speaks no Chinese, and you got handed a paragraph in Chinese and a guideline in English to connect to the Chinese symbols, you could insert a response. However, you would not have understood what you had just spoken about. AI is confined to the rules it is programmed to formulate answers to questions; the bot will never understand your story. No matter how skilled the AI gets at decoding, without understanding, it will have no real sympathy.
If we pull out another example, Robert Nozick, an American philosopher teaching at Harvard University, talked about an Experience Machine. Only the very best experiences you could experience while in the machine, without the thought of you actually standing in a lab even entering your mind. Seems exceptional? Sure, for a few days, maybe a couple months. Yet, there is something missing: other emotions other than just pure joy and happiness. Therefore, some people, other than hedonists, come to the conclusion that this is not the best possible version of life; it does not, in fact, suit their well-being. Hence, I conclude that when people start venting about their grieving and truly mourn, the chatbots will give you the perfect script from the decoding skills that you want to hear… " It wasn’t your fault,” or “try to focus on the present.” Although this seems perfect, like the most supreme friend you can imagine. You miss out on the warm, anxiety-relieving hugs. You miss the advice from person to person about what helped others get through it. You miss a long, genuine conversation because your fingers get too tired to type. In the end, it is just you, in front of the computer, with no physical support.
But what's the harm, right? Interestingly, a Harvard Business School study, led by researchers including Julian De Freitas, found that people actually feel less lonely after talking to an AI companion, some even claiming it eases loneliness almost as much as talking to a real human. Users say the bot made them feel "heard." Sounds like exactly the empathy we've been searching for this whole time, right? Not so fast. Another study, published in Psychology & Marketing in 2026, found that the closer someone felt to their chatbot, the further they drifted from the actual people in their life. The bot made them feel better for the moment, sure, but that feeling came at a price, the price of the relationships that could have truly stood by them. I won't deny the comfort is real, but it is borrowed comfort, a loan you don't realize you'll have to pay back later. You miss all the messy yet meaningful friendships. In the end, a Chinese Room can convince you that it heard you, understood you, cared for you, but it will never once come to your door because they noticed you were acting unusual.
Can AI replace human empathy? As an imitation, of course. Can AI replace genuine human connection? Not at all. These chatbots can copy, and mimic in very advanced methods, except once the person behind the screen can recognize the AI has no real empathy and understanding of their situation, the person may feel even more alone. Searching for authentic human connection would be a much more stable support, than the short-term, curated assist the AI is able to give. As AI becomes more involved with our personal lives, we need to take a step back and revert to our primitive ways. Understanding that convenience should not replace real relationships. So, at the end of the day, who would you turn to?
Work Cited
“The Chinese Room Argument.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 23 October 2024, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/.
Buscicchi, Lorenzo, “The Experience Machine.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Waikato, New Zealand,
Gupta et al., "The Dual Impact of AI Emotional Intelligence on Users: Are Social Chatbots Promoting Psychological Wellbeing or Deteriorating Social Wellbeing?" Psychology & Marketing, 21 December 2025, Wiley Online Library, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.70093.
Schoenberger, Chana R., “When AI Is Your Friend.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2026,
De Freitas et al., "AI Companions Reduce Loneliness." Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 52, no. 6 April 2026, pp. 1126–1148, doi:10.1093/jcr/ucaf040.
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