Empathy in Conversational AI: Rhetorical Analyses and Recommendations

Date

2022-05

Authors

Parish, Lily A.

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Abstract

The aim of this analysis is to understand how empathy is utilized in the design process of conversational artificial intelligence and to gather recommendations influenced by empathy rhetoric to broaden the use and understanding of empathy in conversational AI. This is implemented by constructing four empathy rhetoric tenets to effectively provide a lens by which to examine six artifacts that represent a cross-section of discourse in human-computer interaction (HCI), specifically user experience (UX), and conversational AI. The results illustrate the rich possibilities in conversational AI for creating empathetic user experiences. Recommendations are gathered to serve as the foundation for a framework for empathy in conversational AI. The intention behind this work is that as technology becomes more human, conversational AI designers should be encouraged to understand the complexities of human qualities carefully and look to work from other disciplines such as rhetoric to provide a more nuanced understanding of qualities like empathy.

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Keywords

AI, Rhetoric, Empathy

Citation

Parish, L. A. (2022). <i>Empathy in conversational AI: Rhetorical analyses and recommendations</i> (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

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