AI’s Empathy Apocalypse

Empathy can easily be seen as a cornerstone of humanity. It binds us into communities, spurs us to ease suffering, and elevates our connections beyond mere transactions. Yet today, this “social imperative” is swelling—amplified by artificial intelligence and large language models designed to mirror, even magnify, our capacity to feel. These systems, trained to detect distress in our words or predict our emotional needs, promise a more empathic social dynamic, whatever…